Minahasa's traditional house travels well

Minahasa's traditional house travels well

Jongker Rumteh, The Jakarta Post, Manado

The growing fascination with traditional houses has put Woloan, a
small village in Manado, on the map both here and abroad.

It is known as the place where customers can order knock-down
wooden Minahasan traditional houses to their own specifications.

Located about 3 km from Tomohon and about 28 km from Manado,
the village is the home of carpenters famous for their skills in
building traditional houses. Buyers comes from Jakarta, Bali and
Batam, as well as Argentina, Japan, Poland, South Korea, the
Philippines and the United States.

The prefab house was previously made based on orders from
Minahasa people living in different places in the country but
nostalgic for their traditional architecture. It was only later
that the business attracted foreigners visiting North Sulawesi.

Soon, the increasing demand for the traditional houses
encouraged locals, who learned their house-construction skills
from their ancestors, to take the business seriously.

According to Yus Ngala, a 54-year-old who has been in the
business for the past 15 years, it is a lucrative trade.

A 112-type house, measuring 8 meters by 14 meters, can be sold
for Rp 65 million in North Sulawesi, with additional
transportation and assembling charges for work outside the
province.

"We usually send five to six people to assemble the house for
buyers living in Java and Bali. For a foreign buyer, two people
will be enough to do the assembling job. Usually we send the
chief carpenter and one of his more experienced hands. The buyers
will pay for the travel expenses," Yus said.

The 112-type house has three bedrooms -- each measuring 3.5-
meters by 4 meters, as well as a sitting room and a terrace.
However, the knock-down house has neither a kitchen nor bathroom.

Yus explained the original construction the kitchen and
bathroom were usually built separately from the main house in
traditional Minahasan homes.

"That is why we don't include a kitchen and a bathroom in our
prefab houses. But if the buyer wants us to provide these two
spaces, we'll build them. We make these houses based on order,
but generally, buyers would like to have the original version."

Usually standing three meters high, the house has two large
stairs in the front and rear parts of the house as well as 19
glass windows and six doors. The height of the house can be
adjusted depending on the buyer's tastes and conforms to their
security considerations.

Sometimes the house is built on stilts about three meters
above the ground and the space underneath can be used for various
purposes, such as a parking space.

The 112-type house is usually built by eight carpenters and
takes two months to complete.

Woloan villagers also make other types of houses, like the 36-
type (6 x 6 meters) that only has one bedroom, type 64 with two
bedrooms and type 84 with three bedrooms. Prices range from Rp 32
million to Rp 47.5 million.

Marthen Rutu, a businessman who also designs and builds the
knock-down house, said that he returned from Hawaii in June,
where he assembled a type 112 prefab Minahasa traditional house.
He sold the house for US$10,000, inclusive of transportation and
assembling charges.

He said the same type of house would be sold for Rp 85 million
for buyers from Jakarta, including for transportation and
assembling charges, but it would be higher for buyers from other
provinces, depending on transportation costs.

"This 112-type house is sold at Rp 95 million to a buyer in
Bali, for example. It's more expensive than for Jakarta buyers
because apart from having to rent a container as well as paying
higher transportation costs, we also have to send five workers to
assemble the house there," Marthen said.

All Minahasan traditional houses are made of three types of
wood. The main support beams (six) are from iron wood, walls from
cempaka (frangipani) wood and ceiling is made of nanthu wood. The
roof of the house is made of iron sheets.

All three types of wood come from Kotamobagu, Bolaang
Mangondouw regency, in North Sulawesi.

The builders are paid on a daily basis, ranging from Rp
40,000 for the chief carpenter and Rp 30,000 to Rp 35,000 for his
assistants.

The small-scale businessmen in Woloan say they do not have a
special marketing trick to sell the prefab traditional houses and
simply rely on word of mouth for new customers.

"Usually, we offer foreign tourists visiting our village the
finished product," said Marthen, who employs 24 villagers for his
business. In a year, they can create 20 prefab houses.

Last year alone, three tourists from Argentina, Poland and the
United States came ordered the houses from his place. Two months
ago, two buyers from the West Java town of Bogor and Bontang in
East Kalimantan also placed orders.

For the modern consumer, it seems the home can still be a
traditional house in their own backyard, even if it comes from
halfway across the world.