Symbolism and Architecture from AD
30,000 BP to AD 2100
By Sumset Jumsai
In the second
Inter-Government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, sea rise due to global
warming is projected at the high end at around a meter for AD 2100 or in three generations’
time. Of this, 70 cm is due to the ice caps and glaciers melting, and 30 cm to
thermal expansion of sea water. The projection has since been overtaken by
the acceleration of ice melting and sea rise.
The above in any case is
insignificant compared to the temperature fluctuation betweenglacial and
interglacial periods. Data for the start of the present interglacial period,
or30,000 to 10,000 years ago, point to the fact that sea rise, due to ice
melting, was asmuch as 187 meters. At that pointin time, the rising sea quickly
submerged much ofthe Southeast Asian Continent, a part of which is now the
Sunda Shelf seabed. This land mass, the size of present-day China, was a major
mild zone for humans, animalsand the food chain to survive during the cold
spell. The flood also broke up thecontinent into disparate units and created
tens of thousands of islands in the Philippines and Indonesian archipelagos
Meanwhile, the rapidly
encroachingwater meant that communities had to retreat constantly before the
shorelines and inorder to survive, had to build houses on stiltsor floating.
Moreover, in order to keep intouch with fellow humans marooned on islands which
seemed to be getting furtheraway, people had to build rafts and boats.
Thus began a water-based
way of life as reflected in the folklores, rituals, amphibioushabitats,
nautical technology, navigational skill and the particular symbolism used as codal
transmission of aquatic experience. The split gate in this respect can beseen
as a poignant codal message of Bali being severed from the Southeast
Asianmainland some 20,000 years ago. Quite possibly also, the distant memory of
oceansundulating with shifting landmasses is replicated in the Hindu-Buddhist
cosmologicalmodel which in turn shapes architectural plans and profiles of a
great many religiousstructures in the region.
In the European West,
human contact with the water element was confrontational and calamitous in the
Biblical sense as shown by Noah’s Ark. Venice, however, simply shunned the
waters by adopting a land-based architecture which then resulted in the yearly
flood and damages to the buildings. In the Dutch case the whole country confronts
the floods and the sea head on with polders and sea barriers. With half of its land
below high tide, the Netherlands can be seen as a hydraulic machine constantly pumping
and siphoning water in order to keep its feet dry. It is interesting to compare
this water machine with the hydraulic complex at Angkor, and indeed the
gigantic hydraulic works in ancient China which are unsurpassed in any culture.
However, in the latter examples, the machines also perform other functions than
engineering. They are part of philosophy, art, and culture.
On the philosophical note,
it is interesting to note that recently a group of young architects in the Netherlands
have built a floating new village in a flooded polder for which they
intentionally breached the enclosing dike. The message was tha thumans can live
with the forces of Nature and not against it. This resonates well with the
region’s amphibious or aquatic houses. Here examples might include Panyi in
south Thailand, the Japanese shrine complex of It sukushima, Kampong Ayer in
Brunei, the floating city of Bangkok in the nineteenth century, Kenzo Tange’s
structures on stilt sand R. Buckminster Fuller’s Triton City, both designed in
1960 for Tokyo Bay.
Can any of the above
examples be put to use? Or must humans, indeed architects and investors,
continue to fight against Nature and make end-users or innocent bystanderspay
for the consequences ?
This
material was presented by Sumset Jumsai at 15thArcasia Congress
2012, Nusa dua, Bali, Indonesia
pictures are taken from
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