Cohabitation of people and animals in vernacular settlements: Insight from Indonesian villages

This paper investigates vernacular architecture as a model of cohabitation between people and animal. Animals and people have shared living spaces across cultures and generations, demonstrating the intertwine between domestic life, community, and nature. Relations between people and animal in architectural discourse is often polarized, limiting the discussion to how its architecture becomes a refuge from the wild. Many cultures position animals merely as a means for economic activities, rituals as part of cultural activity, as supporting roles in the society—thus positioning animals beneath people spatially. In the modern context, such polarization creates detachment between people and the wider ecologies, generating further fragmentation between their spatialities. The vernacular perspective is important in exploring the people- animal relations as such discourse appreciates the grounded connection between architecture and nature, and celebrates the tight relations with its social and environmental context. Investigation of people- animal cohabitation expand how nature can be defined in vernacular contexts. This study explores people- animal relations and its spatialities in Indonesian villages. Data collection is done through investigating various studies on Indonesian village dwellings, mapping the shared living spaces and the different people- animal relations across communities. Through secondary studies and fieldworks, this study explores various living patterns and the qualities that enable separation and connection between people and animal, from boundaries, visibility, accessibility, and interrelation of domestic program. Based on such knowledge, the study identifies models of people- animal cohabitation and their shared living system. Understanding such a shared living patterns provides new domestic possibilities with recognition of the cultural practice of its communities and expansion of the people-animal relations.