Prefab Balinese houses in great demand

Prefab Balinese houses in great demand

Wahyoe Boedhiwardhana, Contributor, Denpasar

Sitting on a circular bench in a wooden gazebo surrounded by a
Balinese tropical garden is like staying in one of the island's
palaces. But it is not Bali, it is a busy housing complex in
Singapore.

With the presence of prefabricated gazebos and houses with
alang-alang (thatched) roofs and other products from Bali, it is
now possible to create the ambience and atmosphere of Bali
anywhere in the world by importing these items along with
statues, carvings and even textiles.

The number of companies producing prefab houses and gazebos is
growing rapidly in Bali to cater to the increasing demands of
those wanting to instantly "Balinize" their surroundings.

The marketing manager of Bali Carpenter Wood and Furniture
Company, I Made Purna Wibawa, said that his company had received
a bulk of orders from overseas.

"The trend started in early 2000 and is still flourishing,"
Made said.

The company, he said, can produce various designs and forms of
prefab houses depending on customers' needs.

Made explained that most Balinese houses were freestanding.

"Therefore, it is easy to erect a single Balinese house
without having to link it to another structure, like a main
building," he said.

Other furniture companies are eyeing this golden opportunity
to diversify their businesses from mainly furniture products,
which are reaching saturation point, to the more profitable
prefab wooden house business. The products range from simple
gazebos to multistoried wooden houses.

Dewa Suprayasa, a designer at PT Tunas Jaya in the Sanur
resort area, some 15 kilometers southeast of Denpasar, said the
company was currently making three wooden houses with windows to
be shipped to Costa Rica, South America.

"They like the houses as they are made of wood, something they
cannot obtain in their country," Dewa said. His Costa Rica
clients told him that it was very difficult to find wooden
products in their country. "Permits from relevant agencies are
needed before anyone can even cut down a tree, let alone for mass
production," he quoted the clients as saying.

Dewa said his Costa Rican clients ordered three beach houses
with large windows to be erected on a rocky hill on a well-known
part of the country's coastline. "They said they could easily
reconstruct or move the structures to other places," Dewa said.

Most local companies procure their wood from Kalimantan,
Sulawesi and Papua.

"We only use alang-alang from Bali for the roof," Dewa said.

For one 1,250-square-meter beach villa, at least 1,000 cubic
meters of Bengkirai wood from Kalimantan, Indonesia's largest
forested island, is needed.

For a gazebo, most companies use coconut wood and alang-alang
for the roof.

Bengkirai wood is often used for walls and flooring because
the cutting must be precise, said Dewa, a graduate from Dr.
Soetomo University's Technical School, in Surabaya, East Java.

Making a simple, standard four-square-meter gazebo or house
takes about one week, including the packing. Each cubic meter of
wood costs about Rp 875,000 (US$97). A simple gazebo takes around
40 cubic meters of wood.

"A more elaborate villa takes around five months to finish and
could cost around Rp 1 billion (over $110,000) for material
only," Dewa said.

Various technical problems as well as late delivery of
materials have frequently hampered the completion of prefab
houses, he said. Before completion, owners usually come for a
last check, Dewa said.

In l996, Dewa said his company received a big order for 100
bungalows from a client in Saudi Arabia.

The price of each gazebo or house does not include packaging
and shipping. "Clients have to pay these additional costs," he
said. Upon shipping an order, the company provides the client
with a complete and informative diskette or CD ROM on how to
construct the structures, Made said.

Made continued that the prospect for the prefab house business
would remain lucrative for at least another 10 years. "We have
not yet worked on the domestic market," he said.

To date, the products have been shipped to some Asian,
European and African countries as well as the United States and
Latin America.