PH 423: Written Report | NORTH LUZON HOUSES | NORTH LUZON HOUSE CONSTRUCTION y Ilocos Region (Region I) is Cagayan Valley

(Region II) is located in the northeast portion of the main island and also covers the Batanes and Babuyan islands to the north. The valley is surrounded by the Cordillera Central and Sierra Madre mountain ranges. Running through its center is the country's longest river, Cagayan River. Its provinces are Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino. The region's administrative center is Tuguegarao City. ISNEG HOUSE-Cordillera, Apayao y In the rugged landscape of the Cordillera, Apayao is the only region that has a navigable river, the Apayao, after which the region is named. Thus, among the Cordillera people, only the Isneg are boatmen and boat builders. The Isneg boat, baranay or bankl, consists mainly of three planks; a bottom plank, which tapers at both ends, and two side planks, which are curved to receive the bottom plank y The posts, girders, joists and walls are of wood; the roof is of thatch or bamboo. Most Cordillera houses have pyramidal or hip roofs; the Isneg house, like the Lower Kalinga house, has a gable roof. Some Isneg houses have annexes at both ends. y A ladder leads to a door on one end of the side wall, actually the front. In some houses the entrance opens at the gable and under the protection of a lean-to roof. y Along the gable edges thick boards are mortised on to the beam and purlin ends. Where the atobtobo post stands, two beams are attached to these gable boards: one at the bottom, the other halfway to the roof ridge. Both beams are rabbeted to receive wall boards, but the space above the upper gable beam is left open. y At the other end of the house, where the annex is attached, cogon grass pressed between a pair of frames made of reeds covers the gables upper half. The annexs lean-to roof covers the lower half. In some areas, the roof covering consists of half-sections of bamboo laid on like shingles. The roof is quite thick, having as many as 15 to 20 rows of bamboo sections with wide overlaps. A narrow, flat roof of bamboo covers the roof ridge y Inside the house the space expands because the walls slant outward. No ceiling hides the roofs woodwork. The space immediately visible within corresponds completely with the external form of the house. The floor, made of reeds, seems transparent, as light filters through, suffusing the house with a gentle glow. The floor is a space surrounded by space. The main section, datag orxassaran, is surrounded on three sides by narrow, slightly raised platform, tamuyon, and at the remaining end by the slightly raised floor of the annex. y Of the 15 posts of the Isneg house, eight sinit or inner posts support the floor six inner posts for the main section of the house, and two additional ones for the annex. Six other posts, the adixi, carry the roof and one, the atobtobo, supports one end of the ridge pole. y The six inner sinit posts, there on each side, support the girders running lengthwise. Laths are mortised onto 11 floor joists which run crosswise across the girders. As among the Kalinga, mats made of reeds form the floor and can be rolled up and washed. The floor frame is so constructed that it accommodates the lateral platform and allows wallboards to be removed

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PH 423: Written Report | NORTH LUZON HOUSES | KALINGA HOUSE y The octagonal house called binayon or finaryon is found in Upper Kalinga, in settlements along the Chico River. It is not, however, the only house type in the region. Rectangular houses are just as common, if not more common. It has been suggested that the octagonal houses were houses of the rich. This, however, may be disputed. It has also been suggested that the octagonal house is the older type. y The Kalinga house is not an equilateral octagon, the four diagonal walls being shorter than the front, back and side walls. The floor is not a perfect octagon, since the corners are not all floored over. At one side of the entrance a large portion of the floor is eliminated to provide a working space that reaches from ground level to roof height. As one sits inside the Kalinga binayon the walls and roof seems to form a dome-like and even spherical space, which suggests expansion rather than enclosure y The exterior of the octagonal house does not have the architectural impact of other Cordillera houses, since its features are not strongly defined. The thatched, hipped roof is not high and steep, and the eaves form a rough edged circle. The octagonal form is not clearly pronounced in the wooden and bamboo walls. The octagonal house is about 6.00 m. long and 5.20 m. wide. The floor of the living quarters is 1.20 m. above the ground. The height from the ground to the roof ridge is about 4.50 m. y The interior of the octagonal house is remarkable for its spatial concept and organization. The floor is divided into three parallel sections running front to back, the central portion being lower than the sides. The eight sides are more clearly defined inside the house than outside because of the exposed structural frame of walls and roof. The roofs inner configuration dominates the interior space. y The traditional house in Lower Kalinga is about 6.00 m. long, 5.00 m. wide and 5.75 m. high from ground to roof ridge. y The roof is gabled and its ridge is parallel to the sides of the house. Houses are generally located near the river, and the roof ridge, which marks the axis of the house, does not follow the downstream flow of the river, but rather lies crosswise, crossing it, as it were, like a dam, in order to prevent misfortune. y The roof, of moderate pitch, may be of thatch or bamboo. The floor rises about 1.50 m. above ground level; a ladder connects it to the ground. The walls from ground to floor level are of horizontally laid bamboo poles, and from floor to eaves level are of vertically set wooden boards. In front and at the back, the wooden walls end at height of about 2.50 m., and from there on to the roof ridge horizontally laid bamboo s lats cover the gables. BONTOC HOUSE y The Bontoc house, fayu, is about 3.50 m. in frontage and 4.50 m. the roof is hipped with the ridge parallel to the front. It projects about 1.20 m. beyond the sidings of the ground floor that ends at 1.20 to 1.50 m. above the ground. y The basic form is like that of the Ifugao house, except that the house cage serves as a granary, falig, and the living quarters are on ground level. The granary, resting on threejoists-on-two girders-on-four-posts, is about 1.50 m. above the ground and about 2.00 m. square. As in the Ifugao house, the walls of the house cage support the roof.
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PH 423: Written Report | NORTH LUZON HOUSES | y y The extent of the roof necessitates additional posts, one at each corner to receive the end of each diagonal rafter. The ground floor is enclosed at the front and sides by horizontal wooden boards up to waist height, lashed to the outer posts, and at the rear by a stone wall of the same height, leaving a continuous opening from waist to head level, an opening well protected by eaves. Through the doorway one enters the ground floor called cha-la-nan which includes the space under the granary. Beyond this area, between the two left posts of the granary and bounded at the rear by a low interior wall, is an area containing a fireplace and a shelf along the outer wall for jars. On the right side of the entrance, a platform about .30 m. high and 3.60 m. long and 1.20 m. wide extends from the front wall to the rear interior wall. On this platform sit baskets and implements, underneath are chicken cages

IFUGAO HOUSE y The Ifugao house may be visualized as a three-level structure. The first level of structure consists of a stone pavement, whose perimeter coincides with the edge of the eaves; four posts and girders. y A wooden disk; halipan, which serves as a rat guard, if fitted on each post a few centimeters below the girder. y The second level is the house cage, that is, roof frame, walls and floor. The third level comprises the roof. y Since the posts of the Ifugao house rise to about shoulder height from ground to girders, they do not frame the house cage nor directly support the roof. Thus the house is a cage resting on stilts and a roof resting on the cage. y Although the upper frame of the house cage is above head level, the wall boards rise from the floor to chest or waist height. y In contrast, the roof slopes downward beyond the upper frame of the cage to floor level and the section from head to level to waist height serves as the upper complement of the wall boards. A shelf, patie, extends outwards from the top of the wall boards to the underside of the roof and forms a recess that circumscribes the interior y The Ifugao house (Fig. 2) is compact, sophisticated in its deceptive simplicity, and may well serve as the prototype of the Southern Strain. y Square in floor plan, it is elevated to about shoulder height by four posts (tukud), around which are fitted cylindrical wooden rat-guards (halipan), carrying two transverse girders (kuling) which support three floor joists into which the floor-boards (dotal) are fitted and wallboards (gaob and pamadingan) and studs (bagad) are mortised. It is typical of the exactness of Ifugao construction that the three floor joists are designated by different terms indicative of their purpose-the center one is the gawaan, "center", and the outer two are mundilig, a verb meaning the patting motion made with opposed hands to pack something together. The four studs, placed at the corners of the house, are mortised at their upper end into four tie-beams or purlins (wanan) which form a square to carry much of the weight of the roof as well as a central cross-beam (pumpitolan) on which stand two queenposts (taknang). These queenposts terminate in a small square (ambubulan) which supports the
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PH 423: Written Report | NORTH LUZON HOUSES | upper ends of the rafters (bughol), the roof being a true pyramid in form with four triangular sides and thus rising to an apex without any ridgepole. The wall-boards are rabbeted into a transverse beam (huklub) at waist- or chest-height, at which point a shelf (patie) is fitted between them and the roof, whose eaves descend as low as the level of the floor. Above the tiebeams a reed floor or platform is often fitted to make an attic-like storage space (palan) for unthreshed rice. Wooden panels close doorways on two opposite sides of the house, and entrance is gained by means of a ladder which is removed at night. This type of house is called bale (or fale), but the same basic building with a few modifications-the wall-boards extend up to the roof, there is only one door, and the whole thing is smallerserves as a rat-proof granary (alang). The pitch of the roof is the only noteworthy variation from one locality to another, those of Mayaoyao being steepest and those of Kiangan being most shallow. With the exception of the reed and grass roofing, the whole house is made of heavy hand-hewn timber, preferably hardwood, especially the four posts, and can be expected to last a considerable period of time; with periodic reroofing, some houses in use today have been occupied for five or six generations. Poorer Ifugaos, and even the swidden-farming Kadasans of the Benguetbordering western mountains, make a similar house with splitand- woven bamboo walls. The Ifugao house is not without its disadvantages, however, and one of these is the often eye-smarting smokiness which results from cooking in a fireplace with no chimney, for a roof thatched tightly enough to keep out to the rain but loosely enough to let smoke escape is an impossible compromise. The grass tied to the very apex of the roof is intended to accomplish this purpose, and in some places an old pot is turned upside-down over the loose thatch at that point. Another obvious disadvantage is the limitation in size attendant upon the traditional architecture, for although a wealthy man may build several houses, his family will live in the same restricted space in each of them. The actual floor space, where cooking and sleeping occur, is of little concern, for in the Mountain Province generally parents do not share the same bedchamber as members of the next generation beyond the age of earliest innocence, but the storage space above and the working space below are inconveniently cramped. These disadvantages have to some extentbeen alleviated in the houses of Bontoc and Lepanto

y y

KANKANAI y The Kankanai house has a high, steep, hippef roof with the ridge parallel to the front. y The roof drops, to about 1.50 m. above the ground, thereby concealing the house cage. y The roof rests on the upper frame of the house cage, and the house cage in turn rests on a three joists-on-two girders-on-four posts structure. y Under the house cage, broad planks laid slightly above ground level form a spacious platform that extends to the line of the eaves. y Around the lower floor is a rough stone pavement. The house cage measures about 4.000 by 4.50 m. and the plank floor, about 7.00 by 7.50 m.

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PH 423: Written Report | NORTH LUZON HOUSES | y The height of the house from ground level to roof ridge is slightly over 6.00 m. The Kankanai house is made of narra or pine

IBALOI HOUSE y A typical house of the poorest Ibaloi class is built squat on the ground. It is made of a lowhanging heavy thatch of cogon grass. y The door is a small round opening, so small that one has literally to crawl to get in or out. The low roof and small opening serve to keep the house warm and comfortable. Such a structure is a practical necessity in a cold region that lies on the path of typhoons and rains. y Some bigger houses are provided with a wooden platform about two feet high outside the house but close to the wall. y Members of the family and neighbors sit on the platform with raised folded legs, their buttocks resting on the platform and their backs leaning against the wall of the house. y Ibalois with exposure to the way of life of the lowlanders have adopted a modified house design. y The house is generally raised on the ground on four, six or more posts depending on the size of the house. y The structure is made of pine wood laboriously split and cleaned of its trunk. These processed woods are called sinapsapan and the process of building the house is called pinadek (nailed with woods and every part of it filtered to each other). y The completed house is called dema. A dema usually has two doors and a window and it is a multipurpose structure. It serves as a storage for valuables, a kitchen, a dining room, a bedroom, or a discussion room. As one ascends the teytey (staircase) and enters a house, he will find the weapons in one corner, the dresses and blankets in another corner, the working materials in another and so forth. y The larger houses are for the affluent. They are wider at the ceiling than at the floor area. They look like the houses of the other mountain ethnic groups, but the Ibaloi house has a longer ridge pole to support the four-sided roof. The houses are usually clustered on mountain ridfes or knolls commanding the approaches. IVATAN HOUSE- Batanes y The composition of the Ivatan heritage house is not just a single structure. It is made up of at least two separate buildings: the main house and the kitchen. In other cases, a third structure serving as storage or shed may also exist. y There are several variations of the Ivatan heritage houses. However, two major archetypes can be easily identified. They are referred to in this paper as: the wood-and-thatch (WT) structures, and the lime-stone-wood-and-thatch (LSWT) structures. y WT (wood-and-thatch) - These structures use thatch, wood planks, wood studs, reeds, or a combination of these. They are usually smaller and built with less height compared to those made of stone walls. These are limited to single story structures. Most WT structures are used as storage or kitchen areas. In addition, along coastline villages, the WT structures may serve as temporary dwellings during harvest season for fishing and other agricultural activities.
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PH 423: Written Report | NORTH LUZON HOUSES | y LSWT (lime-stone-wood-and-thatch) These structures use stones of varying sizes from gravel to boulders. Different stones are used including volcanic, basalt, metamorphic, and the like. Coral stones are also commonly used particularly in areas close to the sea. Stones are piled and bound together by applying lime mortar, forming a strong, interlocking edifice. The building system allows for a larger floor area and a two-storey frame. During the rainy season, the lower level is usually used as storage for food and as shelter for animals. During summer, it is used for storage of agricultural products such as yam, sweet potato, wood and charcoal while the upper level is used as the main living quarters. A wood floor separates the two levels The LSWT structures are commonly used as the main house and the WT types as the kitchen or the storage and on certain occasions as temporary dwelling during harvest season

MAYAYAO HOUSE Sagada y The houses of the wealthy in Mayaoyao are made of narra, a hardwood esteemed in the modern Mountain Province for cabinetmaking, and polished to a glossy sheen with a rough hairy leaf called appas which is irritating to the naked skin. The whole construction is accomplished by clever mortising without nails or hardware, and the complete house can be knocked down, moved, and raised again on a new site within a single day Sagada, 16 kilometers west of Bontoc, is about 1,500 meters above sea level. Its average annual rainfall is 3,100 millimeters, and its temperatures range from 5C to 32C. the cold wet climate has produced a house that is completely enclosed, yet has its living quarters on ground level. The Sagada house has a frontage of about 4.80 m. and a depth of 5.10 m. Immediately visible are the wooden walls about 1.50 m. from ground to eaves and the steep, thatched, hipped roof, with the ridge parallel to the front and 6.00 m. above the ground. To the right, as one approaches the entrance, is a sunken, stone-lined pigpen, part of which is under the house. The two major sections are first, the upper level granary and second, the multi-leveled ground floor, with its work and sleeping areas. Since the granary, agamang, is the heart of the structure, this type of house is called inagamang. The granarys walls, which are about 1.50 m. high, support the roof. But a frame consisting of rafters and king posts holds up the roof ridge; in turn the rafters are attached to small posts. In some inagamang, the granary has its own wooden gable roof as a protection against rats. The main roofs king posts rest on the ridge of this wooden roof. With or without this additional roof, the granary does not have rat guards underneath the girders. Upon entering the house, the visitor notices a row platforms defined by the posts supporting the granary. To the left a wooden platform, the sleeping area, extends along the wall from the front wall to the left rear posts of the granary, about .30 m. above the floor. To the right is a slightly higher wooden platform, the storage area. A wooden plank floor

y y

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PH 423: Written Report | NORTH LUZON HOUSES | connects the entrance to the rear posts of the granary. Beyond the platforms and the wooden floor, the fireplace and work area cover the entire rear section of the ground floor. The ground floor is characterized by symmetry of space as well as an atmosphere of intimacy. The granary hangs prominently over the living area without being oppressive, as its visual weight is reduced by the play of girders and joists. Light filters in from the slits between the horizontal planks of the exterior wall. Even in the dim interior one can notice and appreciate the sheen and fineness of the wood, which in many a Sagada house is not less than narra or pine. Like the Bontoc house whose granary forms the core structure and the living quarters on ground level, the Sagada house may be described as a house within a house

VIGAN HOUSES Ancestral Houses y The partitioning of a typical Vigan house is designed for specific purposes. One enters the house through the main door that is wide enough to accommodate the width of a horsedrawn carriage and the height of carroza (religious icon on a decorated carriage brought out during religious processions) into a zagnan or hall on the ground floor . y The more important visitors used to be received at the caida or antesala, a large room where informal entertaining took place. The sala, often the largest room in the house, was reserved for special functions. y At one end of the living room is the comedor or dining room, which led to thecocina or kitchen. To one side of the kitchen is the bathroom and toilet. y The azotea, an extension at the back of the second floor is an outdoor terrace where the residents and their guests repaired to during cool clear nights. y A typical Vigan house has only two to three bedrooms where families slept together as in the pre-colonial wood-and-bamboo bahay kubo. y Partitions between rooms did not reach the ceiling, ending instead in calados or cut-work friezes that enabled breeze to waft through. y From the outside, the unique features include the windows made of capiz shells (a type of translucent seashell),ventanillas or smaller windows protected by wooden balusters, the extensive span of clay-tiled roofs and eaves that developed in response to climactic local conditions. y The rest of the ground floor are used to be rented as shops or used as storage areas . Horses for carriages were housed in stables called caballorezas. The grand staircase is of two sections: a few steps from the ground floor is a landing where ordinary visitors were received; a long flight of stairs lead to the second floor of the house

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