Architecture Building Materials Residential design Sustainable design

Realrich Architecture Workshop designs a bamboo residence and artisan workshop in Indonesia using the bricolage method

August 29, 2021

Piyandeling is a new project comprising The Residence and Artisan Workshop by Realrich Architecture Workshop (RAW). The concept builds upon the practice’s previous “Guha” project. Located in a tranquil area of Mekarwangi Village in Indonesia’s north Bandung province, the project consists of a three-storey house with a grid 3 x 3m  for a family housing two bedrooms for children, a master bedroom, and shared bathrooms.

The building envelope is openable which is constructed with recycled 300 x 600mm plastic panels to cover and protect the inner bamboo structure. The plastic panel is recycled from 99% Sumarah Pavilion, giving the residence its name – Sumarah.

The envelope forms an 800mm service corridor with double cross air ventilation and double wall insulations to the core living space of the building. This forms an adaptation of traditional and more industrial approaches mixing traditional joineries and glued joinery of bamboo. The technique is borrowed from the studio’s Guha Bambu and Alfa Omega projects, which allow the experimentation of three-storied bamboo structure in the form of a diagonal bamboo structure of the floor plate construction.

Construction of Piyandeling is designed as an exercise using three types of main material such as recycled plastic, a local type of sympodial bamboo, and local stone for the foundation. The composition started as an exploration on how bamboo craftsmanship integrated with modular rectangular space to create such integrated craft carving bamboo composition from the ceiling, floor, column, door handle, lock, and finishing details handcrafted in site creating art and craft composition in the whole integrated space.

The artisan workshop which is named Kujang is a two-storey floating structure for an open-air hall for meetings and gatherings connecting with organic farms. It is constructed from the 4 to 5m grids of bamboo structure and covered with Nipah leaf combined with a waterproofing membrane for the roof. Forming the Julang Ngapak as a traditional West Java vernacular building, the playful balustrade of bent bamboo is played as a more elaborated hyperboloid form, it is stronger, and more flexible and creates a silhouette of the natural movement of birds or movement of Kujang which is a traditional weapon in Sunda Tradition.

The other building, called Saderhana, is basically a simple pair of single-storey buildings on the perimeter as dentist space, and design studio, and the underground space. The building was constructed with stone as a platform and bamboo as a roof providing a “Talahap” / overlapping curve traditional bamboo construction covered with layers of waterproofing membrane and Nipah. The underground studio is constructed with bamboo skeletal and concrete which forms a retention wall and carved bamboo shape formworks. The idea is to create finishes that are raw, basic, earthy, and honest in the expression as well as embodying economic sensitivity.  

Piyandeling is an example of bricolage architecture. It is an understanding that to design and build something out of the land, the project needs to find the roots of local genius by understanding the adaptation of local craftsmanship and materials available on specific sites.

Project details:

  • Area: 400m²
  • Year of completion: 2020
  • Photographs: Eric Dinardi
  • Manufacturers: Toto, Dekson, Penguin
  • Architect-in-charge: Realrich Sjarief
  • Design team: Alifian Kharisma, Vivi Yani Santosa, Regi Kusnadi, Miftahuddin Nurdayat, Jovita Lisyani
  • Craftsmen: Amud
  • Structural engineer: Sudjatmiko
  • City: Lembang

See the full image gallery here:

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