Rethinking Bamboo Roof-Based Architecture of Indonesian Traditional House Using Parametric Design and Automated Fabrication Techniques

Indonesian traditional houses are well known as roof-based architecture due to the names
of the houses given by the type of roof shape. The roof is the distinctive dominance of the
house geometry in the overall size and body proportions, which aims to respond to the
tropical climate and solar radiation. The roof structure is made of timber and bamboo
with a non-rigid structure using traditional rope and palm fibre joints. Parametric design
and digital fabrication have disruptively boosted the progress of complex emerging
bamboo architecture design and structures over the past few years. However, it has
remained challenging because bamboo construction relies heavily on manual fabrication
and hand-operated assembly. Seeing this opportunity, we attempt to parametrically
design and robotically fabricate the bamboo roof structure, automate the process, and
move forward from the traditional method towards digital fabrication. Our verification
design experiment object is a typical hyperbolic paraboloid bamboo roof scale prototype.
Our findings highlight the advantages and challenges of bamboo-based structure design,
robotic fabrication process, and novel opportunities for contemporary Indonesian
bamboo architecture.