RUMAH GADANG

It sounds like fun, and looks even better.

One of my recent discoveries while surfing the internet looking for strange and interesting architecture from around the world, is the rumah gadang. It's built by an Indonesian people called the Minangkabau, and uses a system of wooden beams and sugar palm thatch to create dramatic roofs, with sweeping, upward-pointing gables, and extremely detailed, decorative walls.

I find that one of the fascinating aspects of this architecture, as with very much traditional and vernacular architecture from around the world, is its organized complexity (google that). Although looking very unconventional, it still uses the classical princiles of geometry, symmetry and decoration to create a beautiful and interesting design.

The picture above shows a rumah gadang some time between 1892 and 1905, and the picture below was taken in 1905. Both from Commons.