Tiny House Blog » teak

Tiny Javanese Joglo Houses

Kent Griswold — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:36:51 +0000

by Cheyenne Morrison – Australia

In my travels through Bali and Java I would often see antique Javanese JOGLO houses for sale. They were actually designed and built to be able to be dismantled and moved easily.

The images attached I took at an antiques store in Ubud in Bali.The price they had on this one was approximately $8,000 USD, but if you shop around you can buy even larger ones for less.

These fabulous antique traditional bungalows, also known as Joglo, Limasan, and Gladeck, depending on their style, make the perfect guest houses for mild climates, either for private use or in hotel settings. They are very limited and not easy to find in the USA.

These one-of-a-kind traditional Javanese houses are usually at least 100 years old and made from durable maintenance free teak wood, featuring beautifully carved details and elevated floors. Gathered from remote villages throughout Indonesia.

Sizes vary:
Gladeck: 172 sqf – 450 sqf (16 sqm – 42 sqm)
Limasan & Joglo: 1000 sqf – 1500 sqf (93 sqm – 140 sqm)

Unlike modern structures pounded and fixed together with nails, brackets and toxic adhesives, joglos are fit together like giant puzzles; you won’t find a single nail or screw in the entire building. The joglo was originally a four-sided structure enclosed by dozens of three-by-one metre panels.

Small Gladeck houses take about a week to renovate, while the large Limasan and Joglos can take up to a month. The houses are then disassembled for shipment. An assembly instruction diagram is included, but a professional carpenter is required for installation. The foundation for the small houses can be created by putting it on stilts (4 round pillars).

Also there are loads of producers in Bali and Java who sell new ones in kit form, which are very cheap and can be shipped to the USA. Even with the shipping it’s cheaper to buy one of the beautiful hand-made solid teak homes, than to build one in the US. Here are some links to producers.

Bend me, shape me: Space saving furniture

Christina Nellemann — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:00:43 +0000

Tiny houses usually necessitate thinking out of the box when it comes to furniture. Standard furniture for “regular” homes may not fit into a tiny house, so several designers have come up with some interesting and innovative designs for space saving furniture. Interestingly enough, while most of these designers think out of the box, their designs fold up into boxes!

Trick

Trick is the name of this multifunctional furniture that can be used as a bookshelf, a chair, and a dining set. The minimalist multifunction furniture is made from Milan based industrial designer Sakura Adachi.

Arrigoni Teak Table

This teak drop leaf and teak seat ottomans are the latest addition to the hi-low table line of Arrigoni Design. Most of their designs are for boats, but they can be used in tiny houses as well. The ottomans provide seating in tight spaces and have hinged up cushions for extra storage inside. Storage is easy under each side of the standard 32 X 36 fold over hi-low table.

KEWB

The KEWB is an entire house of furniture in one small package. The Sit n’ Sleep KEWB is a table, a chair, a recliner, a side table, a bed and a dining set all in one. The entire unit collapses down to the size of a side table.

Tagei Coffee Table

A graduate of industrial design, Akemi Tanaka has designed some innovative furniture. One piece is the Tagei which looks like a coffee table but it can also be extended into a bench for additional company.

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

Gado Gado Teak Guest House

Christina Nellemann — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:00:17 +0000

In the middle of winter, I start dreaming about tropical locales. For people who are lucky enough to be able to let the outdoors into their homes almost all year long, the “Wee Hus” from Gado Gado International in Santa Rosa, Calif. might be the perfect tiny house for you.

These tiny teak homes with their exquisite details are designed from the original style found in Indonesia and are built in Java. Both the original traditional tiny houses and the newer ones are made from reclaimed teak using traditional mortise and tenon joinery.

Gado Gado uses nails and bolts sparingly where needed for structural strength and safety.The tiny houses are named after Gado Gado owner, David Sussman’s Irish Aunt Patsy.

Indonesia is in earthquake country, and there are more >6.0 earthquakes in Java than in California. These little houses have stood up to large temblors precisely because of how they were constructed: the complex joinery system with through-going tenons through tenons in two directions gives the structure sufficient strength but allows enough flexibility to sway during earthquake movements without falling over.

The ceilings of some of the tiny houses range from simple teak lap-jointed planks to highly carved original “joglo” pieces. Gado Gado cuts the roof shingles by hand out of reclaimed teak boards.

Tumpang Sari Carved Ceiling

Joglo Painted Ceiling

The tiny houses range from 8×8 ft. up to 16×16 ft., and are priced at $10,000 up to about $30,000 based on size, complexity, and the amount of original or new carving requested by the customer. They are built for longevity, and can stand up to rain, snow and direct sun. Teak is more resistant to rot and bugs than any hardwood or softwood grown in the U.S. due to its high resin content and the presence of 1%-2% silica (basically like beach sand) taken up by the teak tree from the soil. These houses are not yet built to U.S. standards for year-round living, although such modifications are not difficult during installation. The original Indonesian teak homes were not built with wiring or plumbing, but this can be added later by the customer.

Gado Gado offers a CD-ROM that shows the step-by-step construction of a 16×12 ft Wee Hus. You can order the CD-ROM from the website.

The teak homes ship to the customer as “knock down” with each mortise and tenon marked to show where they will be put together. Scaled drawings of the pier foundation are also included. Gado Gado recommends that customers invite all their friends that are handy with tools and make a day of it (a 12×16 ft. tiny house takes about 1.5 days to set up with 8 people). However, it is worth the money to get the owner, David Sussman and one of his staff, out to the site to guide the installation.

By Christina Nellemann

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