Traditional Architecture
For centuries Engans have constructed dwellings made from locally available bush materials. Roof construction is often of a crude thatch type, waterproofing being obtained by repeated lighting of a heavily smoking fire inside and the accretion of the soot onto the roofing material.
Floors are often dirt, covered with a semi-disposable woven layer of bush material. Sugarcane husks are also spread across the dirt to provide a disposable covering.
In wind prone areas of Enga, wind-proofing of the walls is effected by sealing with a daub mixture of pig manure, tree sap and ash.
Read more about this topic: Enga Province
Famous quotes containing the words traditional and/or architecture:
“I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)