Meta description: West Papua has countless unique cultures and architectures. One of them is Ibeiya.
Slug: The-Architecture-of-Ibeiya-West-Papua
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Ibeiya is also known as the Kaki Seribu Traditional House of Arfak Tribes, including the Hatam, Sougb, Meyakh, and Moile tribe. They live on the highlands of Arfak Mountains in the Minyambouw district, West Papua. Ibeiya is one of the local cultures that still exist today. If you’re interested in Papua’s culture, you will find some details and uniqueness of the Ibeiya architecture.
Ibeiya and The West Papua Nature Conservation
The people of West Papua have forests with various types of trees. When they want to build an Ibeiya, they choose specific lumbers and tree barks. When they cut trees for Ibeiya or other purposes, they don’t cut the trees directly, but they will cut the leaves, leave them for a month and cut it. They do it because they want to keep the soil in good condition and prevent erosion.
The same cutting trees technique is also applied when they want to open the forest for farming. With this technique, when there is no leaf on the trees, the strength of the roots weakens. It’s less destructive compared to directly cutting these trees. There will be less erosion and no landslide to keep the people safe.
The design of Ibeiya to deal with the temperature
As we know, the Arfak Mountains in West Papua have low temperatures, so the people there design Ibeiya with two fireplaces on the right and left sides of the house. The fireplaces make the house warmer at night. However, they arrange them well and carefully pay attention to safety because the house is made from wood.
The natural air circulation in Ibeiya
Besides fireplaces, Ibeiya is built with two doors across each other to control. This allows the air to flow from the front door to the back door and vice versa. In this way, the cold air from the outside directly flows without entering the rooms in the house. They don’t put many windows in Ibeiya either for that reason.
Furthermore, lumber is a good material for keeping the heat inside Ibeiya. Lumbers and woods are proven to be better at isolating the heat than brick or concrete walls. This architecture is based on local West Papua culture, which they have held for generations.
The home gardening around Ibeiya
The concept of “go green” in city houses is also applied in Ibeiya. Although the house is already surrounded by the West Papua forest, it is a garden around the house. The people plant their daily needs in that garden. It is usually beside or behind the house so they can easily access the garden to pick something for their needs. There is no commercial purpose when they plant some crops in their garden.
The compass and Ibeiya
Most Ibeiya faces east-to-west for some reason. The main reason is to avoid the cold wind. Generally, the wind blows from the south to the north, making the temperature colder if the house faces this direction. Another reason is to get as much sunlight as possible to keep the house warm. This means that the people will ignore the road direction because their wall faces the road instead of their door.
The earthquake-resistant design for Ibeiya
Another amazing thing about Ibeiya in West Papua is that the house is designed to be earthquake-resistant. Ibeia has some pillars called Hauwa. There are sloping pillars that support the house. The pillars face forward along the house and face to the right or left near the house foundation. This design is believed to be earthquake-resistant because it was used years back when their ancestors were still alive.
