Negotiations of vernacular shapes and materials of Talang Mamak Tribal Houses, East Sumatra, Indonesia

The Talang Mamak tribe is one of the ethnic groups in Indonesia, which still maintains their traditional way of life. Vernacular houses of the Talang Mamak Tribe posess shapes, elements, and procedures derived from local materials and constructions. This paper describes how the characteristics of the form and use of materials that exist in the Talang Mamak houses today adapt and negotiate with the modern developments and the new knowledge from the outside world. The research reported here used grounded theory, based on open coding, axial coding, and selective coding techniques, to find shapes adaptations and negotiations of materials used in the present day Talang Mamak houses. The paper presents the additions and subtractions of shapes and forms in the Talang Mamak houses. It demonstrates that the arrangement of rooms was according to their needs and local traditions. Moreover, the materials used in the Talang Mamak vernacular houses also changed, where the use of local materials such as bark adapted and negotiated into the use of boards, concrete, and renewable materials such as bark laminates with the intervention of advanced knowledge. The paper concludes that Talang Mamak people have negotiated with the modern world, the way they construct their houses to ensure that their traditions are not violated. © 2020 Center for Environmental Planning and Technology University.