Dualism in the Javanese House and Transformation With focus on the houses of Kotagede, Yogyakarta

Abstract

The Javanese in Indonesia believe that the cosmos (the natural world) is composed of various opposing concepts – day and night, brightness and darkness, heaven and earth, left and right, male and female, etc. Given that Javanese people perceive a house as a microcosm of the natural universe, they seek to find balance in their housing as well. Such dualism, which is represented in the form and use of Javanese housing, causes the house to consist of various separated units assigned with contrasting concepts. Through case studies of the traditional houses existing in Kotagede, Yogyakarta, this paper aims to clarify how this type of dualism is realized in Javanese houses and how dualism has been transformed as the society changed. A field survey conducted in August 2014 includes measurement of five houses and interviews with the residents using a semi-structured questionnaire in order to understand the history of the houses and families as well as the meaning and use of the housing spaces. Among the diverse concepts of dualism, the study focused on the three major dualistic concepts of public/private, male/female, and god/ when analyzing each of the Javanese buildings and its spaces.

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