Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; [1] they also keep out vermin. [2] The shady space under the house can be used for work or storage. [3] Stilt houses are commonly found in Southeast Asia, Oceania, Central America, Caribbean, northern parts of South America, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and the Maldives.
Stilted granaries are also a common feature in West Africa, e.g., in the Malinke language regions of Mali and Guinea.
Stilt houses were also built by Amerindians in pre-Columbian times. Palafitos are especially widespread along the banks of the tropical river valleys of South America, notably the Amazon and Orinoco river systems. Stilt houses were such a prevalent feature along the shores of Lake Maracaibo that Amerigo Vespucci was inspired to name the region "Venezuela" (little Venice). As the costs of hurricane damage increase, more and more houses along the Gulf Coast are being built as or converted to stilt houses. [4]
Stilt houses are also still common in parts of the Mosquito Coast in northeastern Nicaragua, and in northern Brazil [5] as well as the bayou parts of the Southern United States and the hurricane prone Florida Keys and South Carolina Lowcountry.
Houses where permafrost is present, in the Arctic, are built on stilts to keep permafrost under them from melting. Permafrost can be up to 70% water. While frozen, it provides a stable foundation. However, if heat radiating from the bottom of a home melts the permafrost, the home goes out of level and starts sinking into the ground. Other means of keeping the permafrost from melting are available, but raising the home off the ground on stilts is one of the most effective ways.
Raised rectangular houses are one of the cultural hallmarks of the Austronesian peoples and are found throughout the regions in Island Southeast Asia, Island Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia settled by Austronesians. The structures are raised on piles, usually with the space underneath also utilized for storage or domestic animals. The raised design had multiple advantages, they mitigate damage during flooding and (in very tall examples) can act as defensive structures during conflicts. The house posts are also distinctively capped with larger-diameter discs at the top, to prevent vermin and pests from entering the structures by climbing them. Austronesian houses and other structures are usually built in wetlands and alongside bodies of water, but can also be built in the highlands or even directly on shallow water. [7] [6] [8] [9]
Building structures on pilings is believed to be derived from the design of raised rice granaries and storehouses, which are highly important status symbols among the ancestrally rice-cultivating Austronesians. [6] [9] The rice granary shrine was also the archetypal religious building among Austronesian cultures and was used to store carvings of ancestor spirits and local deities. [9] While rice cultivation wasn't among the technologies carried into Remote Oceania, raised storehouses still survived. The pātaka of the Māori people is such an example. The largest pātaka are elaborately adorned with carvings and are often the tallest buildings in the Māori pā . They were used to store implements, weapons, ships, and other valuables; while smaller pātaka were used to store provisions. A special type of pātaka supported by a single tall post also had ritual importance and were used to isolate high-born children during their training for leadership. [6]
The majority of Austronesian structures are not permanent. They are made from perishable materials like wood, bamboo, plant fiber, and leaves. Because of this, archaeological records of prehistoric Austronesian structures are usually limited to traces of house posts, with no way of determining the original building plans. [10] Indirect evidence of traditional Austronesian architecture, however, can be gleaned from their contemporary representations in art, like in friezes on the walls of later Hindu-Buddhist stone temples (like in reliefs in Borobudur and Prambanan). But these are limited to the recent centuries. They can also be reconstructed linguistically from shared terms for architectural elements, like ridge-poles, thatch, rafters, house posts, hearth, notched log ladders, storage racks, public buildings, and so on. Linguistic evidence also makes it clear that stilt houses were already present among Austronesian groups since at least the Late Neolithic. [8] [9]
In the late 20th century, stilt houses in extremely calm ocean water became a popular form of tourist lodging known as overwater bungalows; the trend began in French Polynesia and quickly spread to other tourist locations, especially in tropical locales.
Stilt houses in China known as guījiǎfángwū (simplified Chinese :龟甲房屋; traditional Chinese :龜甲房屋; lit.'turtle shell house') because Chinese stilt house structures inspired from a turtle and built over water surface (e.g. rivers).
Arbi et al. (2013) have also noted the striking similarities between Austronesian architecture and Japanese traditional raised architecture ( shinmei-zukuri ). Particularly the buildings of the Ise Grand Shrine, which contrast with the pit-houses typical of the Neolithic Yayoi period. They propose significant Neolithic contact between the people of southern Japan and Austronesians or pre-Austronesians that occurred prior to the spread of Han Chinese cultural influence to the islands. [8] Rice cultivation is also believed to have been introduced to Japan from a para-Austronesian group from coastal eastern China. [11] Waterson (2009) has also argued that the architectural tradition of stilt houses in eastern Asia and the Pacific is originally Austronesian, and that similar building traditions in Japan and mainland Asia (notably among Kra-Dai and Austroasiatic-speaking groups) correspond to contacts with a prehistoric Austronesian network. [9] [12]
In South Asia, stilt houses are very common in Northeast India, specifically the Brahmaputra Valley regions of Assam, which is extremely prone to regional flooding from the Brahmaputra. These houses are known as chang ghar in Assamese, and as kare okum in Mising; chang ghar are traditionally built by the Mising people, who live along the Brahmaputra. Unlike many forms of traditional architecture, including stilt architecture, in South and Southeast Asia, the construction of chang ghar is making a resurgence and increasing in popularity, as a result of climate change increasing regular flooding in Assam, and the stilts of the chang ghar is adapted to flooding in the first place. [13] The height of the stilts of the chang ghar is determined by the height of the water during the last major flood. [14]
Stilt houses are also popular in Kerala in the Kerala backwaters, another regions with high rainfall and regular flooding from monsoons. Although stilt houses in the Kerala Backwaters have been a traditional method of house construction for many years, following the disastrous 2018 floods in Kerala, many more stilt houses have been constructed recently and utilize concrete as well as timber for their pillars. [15] [16]
In the Neolithic, the Copper Age and the Bronze Age, stilt-house settlements were common in the Alpine and Pianura Padana (Terramare) regions. [17] Remains have been found at the Ljubljana Marsh in Slovenia and at the Mondsee and Attersee lakes in Upper Austria, for example.
Early archaeologists like Ferdinand Keller thought they formed artificial islands, much like the Irish and Scottish crannogs, but today it is clear that the majority of settlements were located on the shores of lakes and were only inundated later on. [18]
Reconstructed stilt houses are shown in open-air museums in Unteruhldingen and Zürich (Pfahlbauland). In June 2011, the prehistoric pile dwellings in six Alpine states were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. A single Scandinavian pile dwelling, the Alvastra stilt houses, has been excavated in Sweden.[ citation needed ] Herodotus has described in his Histories the dwellings of the "lake-dwellers" in Paeonia and how those were constructed. [19]
In the Alps, similar buildings, known as raccards, are still in use as granaries. In England, granaries are placed on staddle stones, similar to stilts, to prevent mice and rats getting to the grain.
In Italy there are several stilt-houses settlements, for example the one on the Rocca di Manerba del Garda.
In Scotland there used to be prehistoric stilt houses called crannogs. [20]
Stilt houses as water villas are common in the Maldives and Assam.
A crannog is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were built on the shores and not inundated until later, crannogs were built in the water, thus forming artificial islands.
Neolithic architecture refers to structures encompassing housing and shelter from approximately 10,000 to 2,000 BC, the Neolithic period. In southwest Asia, Neolithic cultures appear soon after 10,000 BC, initially in the Levant and from there into the east and west. Early Neolithic structures and buildings can be found in southeast Anatolia, Syria, and Iraq by 8,000 BC with agriculture societies first appearing in southeast Europe by 6,500 BC, and central Europe by ca. 5,500 BC (of which the earliest cultural complexes include the Starčevo-Koros, Linearbandkeramic, and Vinča.
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America.
Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style, but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, both historical and extant and classical and modern. Vernacular architecture constitutes 95% of the world's built environment, as estimated in 1995 by Amos Rapoport, as measured against the small percentage of new buildings every year designed by architects and built by engineers.
Malay houses refer to the vernacular dwellings of the Malays, an ethno-linguistic group inhabiting Sumatra, coastal Borneo and the Malay Peninsula.
The báhay kúbo, kubo, or payág, is a type of stilt house indigenous to the Philippines. Often serving as an icon of Philippine culture, its design heavily influenced the Spanish colonial-era bahay na bato architecture.
Uhldingen-Mühlhofen is a town at the northern shore of Lake Constance, Germany between Überlingen and Meersburg. The town is a popular holiday destination and home to the Pfahlbauten open-air museum in Unteruhldingen and the Birnau basilica.
Bodio Lomnago is a comune (municipality) in the province of Varese, in the Italian region of Lombardy.
Polcenigo is a comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Pordenone in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 110 kilometres northwest of Trieste, 95 kilometres (59 mi) north of Venice and about 14 kilometres (9 mi) northwest of Pordenone.
The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages. They also include indigenous ethnic minorities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Hainan, the Comoros, and the Torres Strait Islands. The nations and territories predominantly populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are sometimes known collectively as Austronesia.
The architecture of Indonesia reflects the diversity of cultural, historical, and geographic influences that have shaped Indonesia as a whole. Invaders, colonizers, missionaries, merchants, and traders brought cultural changes that had a profound effect on building styles and techniques.
Gaienhofen is a municipality in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is located at the border with Switzerland.
Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen is an archaeological open-air museum on Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Unteruhldingen, Germany, consisting of reconstructions of stilt houses or lake dwellings from the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Rumah adat are traditional houses built in any of the vernacular architecture styles of Indonesia, collectively belonging to the Austronesian architecture. The traditional houses and settlements of the several hundreds ethnic groups of Indonesia are extremely varied and all have their own specific history. It is the Indonesian variants of the whole Austronesian architecture found all over places where Austronesian people inhabited from the Pacific to Madagascar each having their own history, culture and style.
Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps are a series of prehistoric pile dwelling settlements in and around the Alps built from about 5000 to 500 BC on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. In 2011, 111 sites located variously in Switzerland (56), Italy (19), Germany (18), France (11), Austria (5) and Slovenia (2) were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. In Slovenia, these were the first World Heritage Sites to be listed for their cultural value.
Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a structure or building to stand at a distance above the ground or water. In flood plains, and on beaches or unstable ground, buildings are often constructed on stilts to protect them from damage by water, waves or shifting soil or sand. As these issues were commonly faced by many societies around the world, stilts have become synonymous with various places and cultures, particularly in South East Asia and Venice.
Prehistoric pile dwellings around Lake Zurich are pile dwelling sites located around Lake Zurich in the cantons of Schwyz, St. Gallen and Zürich.
Rangkiang is a granary or rice barn that the Minangkabau people used to keep rice in. The rangkiang is a distinctive feature of Minangkabau architecture. The structure is traditionally found in the courtyard of a rumah gadang, the traditional house of Minangkabau people.
The architecture of Taiwan can be traced back to stilt housing of the aborigines in prehistoric times; to the building of fortresses and churches in the north and south used to colonize and convert the inhabitants during the Dutch and Spanish period; the Tungning period when Taiwan was a base of anti-Qing sentiment and Minnan-style architecture was introduced; in Qing dynasty period, a mix of Chinese and Western architecture appeared and artillery battery flourished during Qing's Self-Strengthening Movement; During the Japanese rule of Taiwan, the Minnan, Japanese and Western culture were main influencers in architectural designs and saw the introduction and use of reinforced concrete. Due to excessive Westernization as a colony, after the retrocession of Taiwan to the Republic of China in 1945 from Japan at the end of World War II, Chinese classical style became popular and entered into international mainstream as a postmodern design style. Today, Taiwanese architecture has undergone much diversification, every style of architecture can be seen.
