Rumoh Aceh (Traditional Malay Houses in Aceh Province)

Confidence of individuals or communities and the natural conditions in which the individual or community life have a significant influence on the architecture, the house, which was made. It can be seen in the architecture Rumoh Aceh Special Province of Aceh, Indonesia. Rumoh Aceh is home to the stage with a pole between 2.50 to 3 meters high, consists of three or five rooms, with one main room, called vines. Rumoh with three rooms has 16 poles, while Rumoh with five rooms has 24 poles. Modification of three to five spaces or vice versa can be done easily, simply add or remove parts in the left or right side of the house. This section is called sramoe likot or back porch or veranda and sramoe reunyeun bertangga, where the entrance to the Rumoh which is always located in the east.
The main door Rumoh Aceh is always lower than the height of an adult. Usually the height of the door is only 120-150 cm sized so that each person who entered into Rumoh Aceh should bow. However, once inside, we will feel very airy room in the house because there was no furniture in the form of a chair or table. Everyone was sitting cross-legged on a mat Ngom (of similar material, weeds that grow in swamps) covered with pandanus mats.
Rumoh Aceh is not only shelter, but an expression of belief in God and adaptation to environment. Therefore, through Aceh Rumoh we can see the culture, lifestyle, and values ​​that are believed by the people of Aceh. Acehnese adaptation to the environment can be seen from the form Rumoh Aceh shaped stage, the beams ang made of wood choices, the walls of the board, and the roof of thatch. Use of nature can also be seen when they want to incorporate parts of the house, they do not use nails but using pegs or straps from rattan. Even though only made of wood, leaf thatched roofs, and do not use nails, Rumoh Aceh could last up to 200 years.
Beliefs influence the people of Aceh to the architecture of his house can be seen in the orientation of the house that always elongated from east to west, namely the front facing the east and the inside or back of the sacred in the west. West direction reflected the Acehnese community efforts to build an imaginary line to the Kaaba in Mecca. In addition, the influence of belief can also be seen in the use of buffer poles are always an even number, the amount of room that is always odd, and the steps that odd.
Aside from being a manifestation of public confidence and adaptation to the environment, the existence of Rumoh Aceh also shows the social status. The more ornate the Rumoh Aceh, then surely the richer inhabitants. For families who do not have excessive wealth, then simply garnish with relatively little or even none at all.
As the times are demanding all the things done effectively and efficiently, and the increasingly high cost of manufacture and maintenance Rumoh Aceh, then gradually less and less people of Aceh who built this traditional house. As a result, the number of Rumoh Aceh are increasingly less. People prefer to build a modern house made of concrete manufacture and procurement of the material more easily than Rumoh Aceh making more complicated, more difficult material procurement, and maintenance costs are more expensive. However, there are also people who love the architectural heritage of their ancestors made Rumoh Aceh attached to their concrete house.
The existence Rumoh Aceh is the embodiment of the values ​​that live and run by the people of Aceh. Therefore, preserving Rumoh Aceh means also preserving the existence of the Acehnese people themselves. The idea of ​​preservation Rumoh Aceh will increasingly find the momentum after the tsunami that hit Aceh on December 26, 2004 taggal. Post-tragedy of natural disaster, a variety of people from different nations come not only brought relief but also brings a tradition that is not necessarily compatible with the values ​​developed in Aceh.

Posted in: aceh, Culture, traditional house