Traditional Balinese Architectural House as a Resilient Residence Against the Covid 19 Pandemic; An Interpretation Approach

Putu Rumawan Salain

Guru Besar Arsitektur Konservasi

Architecture Department, Technical Faculty, Udayana University

email:rumawan@unud.ac.id, rumawansalain@yahoo.com

A house is a designation for a building that generally refers to its usefulness as a temporary or permanent residence that could be the property of others. In different expressions the house can also be seen as a shelter and carry on its life. Now the house is also a commodity and a status symbol that reflects who owns it.

The house is not a facility to live and shelter only, but the Traditional Balinese Architectural House in accordance with its era was built to fulfill the purpose of defense and carry out its life and livelihood as a farmer, within the confines of the family household reflected by the existence, pawon, jineng, bale daja, bale dangin, bale dauh, bale delod, sanggah to tebe

The breadth of the yard and tebe allows them to keep a variety of poultry, four-legged animals for food needs, ceremonies or also maintained as savings. The yard and tebe are also equipped with various flower plants, fruits, which are beneficial for their life and livelihood. While the spiritual needs of "spiritual" is carried out in the family temple called the denial of kemulan.  In other words, the house is a miniature of the agrarian life of the past with the color or concept of togetherness in self-reliance, meaning they live, work, worship at home alone on a household scale and beliefs.

Thus The Traditional House of Bali is a house where the inhabitants grow and develop from generation to generation to the limit of its capacity, the house is also a place of education or learning from the process of birth to death until after in aben and then ngeroras, the atma is symbolized berstana in one of the pelinggih. So the bond of the occupant with his descendants with the house is very close, so that the existence of the house in question is maintained or preserved for the benefit of social status, recognition, and inheritance.

The embodiment of The Traditional Balinese Architectural House, based on who owns it. The owner will be the basis of setting the dimensions (length, width, and height) of the building, the distance between buildings, site settings, buyers, and others. The basis of such arrangements is known as elbows arranged or formed from the dimensions of the fingers, hands, and soles of the homeowner's feet. For example for the size of the pile "saka" is called rai and for the distance of the building using treads (soles of the feet). Multiples of the number of footprints to set the distance of the building there are calculations and impacts for the owner. While in the long-width-high dimensions, go home from the owner's finger called rai. The multiples of rai are distinguished for the traditional house for ordinary people with the ruler of the "king".

Not infrequently, among them are not too rijid with the provisions of the measure, there is always diplomacy by adding scripters in addition. Similarly, when the house is placed there is a set-up that boils down to the impact on the homeowner. All of them are written in asta Kosala-Kosali lontar. Furthermore, for building or pelinggih in Sanggah Kemulan based on Asta Kosalaning Dewa. Building materials in the form of wood are arranged in lontar Janantaka, wall materials are used local natural resources or on the basis of community trust processed or not.

The distance between the buildings in the Traditional Balinese Architectural House, one with the other arranged on the orientation of the wind, dewata nawa sanga, sanga mandala, Tri Angga, makes it a house of many times with their respective functions which is a translation of the philosophy of Tri Hita Karana that describes human relationship with nature, with human beings 'fellow", and with Ida Sang Hyang Widhi. The time of the building was tied by an open space in the middle of the yard or in the middle of Sanga Mandala called Natah.

Corona Virus Disease (Covid) 19 initially spread in Wuhan, China around December 2019 until now in June 2020 has spread throughout the world and some of them died. From various sources mentioned that in Bali alone since June 27, 2020 covid 19 positive citizens there are a number of 1,263 people, 440 of whom were donated by the city of Denpasar. The plague is rapidly transmitted through human contact with humans. It happens when the sufferer sneezes, the droplet delivers the virus to the humans closest to him. Viruses can also move through the media of money, fruit, food, door handles, ATM keys, elevator buttons and so on that are touched by sufferers.

Looking at the process of human exposure from the Covid 19 virus, prevention and countermeasures are expected from vaccines. However, the vaccine is still in process, so to break the chain of transmission is done by keeping distance and reducing social contact. Another thing that people do is to always use a mask, and often wash their hands with a sanitizer. It is better to use face shield, t-shirt, and always change clothes if coming from outside the house. It is also good if when changing clothes accompanied by bathing as well as shampooing.

Paying attention to the way of countermeasures in accordance with the standards called by the government, especially issues related to distance and crowd (physical and social distancing) then the Traditional Balinese Architectural House from the appearance of the composition of the building has provided a very significant space and social contact. Similarly, from the problem of residents, each of them occupies a separate building by a distance of more than two meters. For example, the distance from Bale Daja building with Bale Delod, and Bale Dauh and Dangin. So it can be said that each occupant isolated himself in the occupied building.

The inhabitants of the traditional Balinese Architectural House in the past have never experienced a period of great gering that has an impact on death. If they arrive in one yard there is a  gering agung  "pandemic" then they are extradited out of the yard, can go to the tegal "garden" or even until evacuated to the forest (isolation). This took place because there were no hospitals, doctors, or medicines.

In terms of hand and body hygiene including non-physical in the era of tradition carried out in Bale Pawon. Every resident comes from outside the house, obliged to wash their hands and face in the pawon yard. Especially for mothers who breastfeed babies must wash their breasts before breastfeeding their children.  After that they enter the pawon room which is believed to be able to clean up something that does not appear to hitchhike throughout its activities or journey from outside the house.

Other protection in Traditional Balinese House from the niskala side is from the presence of apit lawang, aling-aling, penunggun karang, pengijeng natah, and the use of reed materials "ambengan" as the roof of the house. Ambengan used roofing material is analogous to someone using karawista when someone performs the ritual process samkara. When residents go in and out of each building that is roofed ambengan means uniting elements of Tri Kaya Parisudha.

Thus the Traditional Balinese Architectural House in its era was built not only to live and protect themselves from natural conditions and to maintain their privacy, but at times and niskala has the meaning of protection of its residents. Such protection at least since: 1). A good day of "adulthood" to begin the construction of "ngeruak", gathering materials to to the point of melaspas, 2). Arrange the layout of buildings with dimensions and distances using elbows from the owner, 3). Establish the location of the buyer on the yard of the house, 4). Equip the yard wall with paduraksa as a wall amplifier while maintaining attacks / shipments that do not appear "niskala", 5). Select and use selected materials in accordance with the provisions. 6). Equip the yard and house with pengijeng karang  and  pengijeng natah . 7). Sanggah Kemulan as a place for families to organize bhakti and pray for the safety and health of the family.

The life and livelihood of the agrarian cultural era with its traditional home if viewed from contemporary glasses is certainly less or less hygienic, but it must be recognized that many of them survive above average age. Why? The answer is very possible because of their adaptability to the universe and its environment. The success of their adaptation results in immunity or immunity to the disease.

From the description above, it appears that the government's recommendation to work from home is not a new and difficult problem for those who still own the Traditional Balinese Architectural House, because the house accommodates the intention of learning, working, worshiping in and from home alone, and can even be added by playing. Therefore, for those who still inherit the Traditional Balinese Architectural House is expected not to dismantle it, but it is recommended to revitalize in accordance with current needs, so that the intentions of disease transmission can be reduced as well as break the chain.