Becoming Incomplete House: the Environmental Implication of the Traditional Balinese House Transformation in Tourism Area

Abstract

The traditional Balinese house in rural areas is designed to optimize the use of available resources, to minimize energy consumption, and to provide spaces for garbage processing and biodiversity. However, the change of rural to become urban areas in tourism areas is an interesting phenomenon. In this phenomenon, the use of house as tourist facilities and the increase of occupants in the house have caused the changes in its physical configurations in which the house becomes an incomplete house since some spaces are transformed into tourist facilities. The increase of its building density also affects many components of the environmental aspects in the house including energy consumption. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate this environmental implication especially energy consumption in the rural-urban interface areas. This aspect in a number of houses transformed for tourist facilities has been investigated through utility meter data collection. Architectural investigation and interviews were then used to consolidate memory and to reconstruct the spatial stories of the house. The transformed houses were selected randomly. This study states that the transformation has affected the use of natural resources in the house. The transformed houses are the owner’s attempts to demonstrate the improvement of their social status.

Keywords: Rural-Urban Interface, Traditional Balinese House, Environmental Implication, Transformation