The people of Central Sulawesi know 3 traditional houses as their pride. One of them is the Tambi Traditional House of the Lore Tribe and Kaili Tribe. It is classified as a rectangular house on stilts whose roof is also useful as a wall. The house pedestal is made of stacked blocks, while the foundation is made of natural stone. It is a house on stilts with short pillars and no more than 1 meter high. There are 9 support poles and they are attached to each other using wooden pegs. Usually, the poles are made of Bonati wood, a type of forest wood that has a strong texture and is not easily weathered. The stairs to enter are made of round logs. The number of household steps is different and meaningful. The odd number steps indicate the house of the traditional head. Meanwhile, the even number of stairs is a resident’s house.
The Tambi Traditional House has no rooms and its occupants usually sleep in the living room using a wooden bed. In the middle of the main room, there is a kitchen equipped with a stove for cooking. This house has no partitions in the room. So, the local people carry out all activities in one room. This indicates that in the past, the local people might look at each other; the important thing was to be comfortable in the rainy season and protected from the hot sun. The Tambi Traditional House is used as a residence. It has additional buildings, namely Buho or Gambiri which have their functions. For example, Bohu is a building that has 2 floors and has rooms like the main house. The first floor is used to receive guests, while the second one is used for storing rice. While Pointua is used as a place to pound rice. Recently, the Tambi Traditional House has begun to make ornaments on the door as decoration. Most of the motifs are inspired by the environment, such as animals or plants.
Building a Tambing Traditional House should not be careless. There is a main requirement that must be done when building. The position of the house must face south and north. So, it doesn’t turn its back to the sun at sunrise and sunset. Another attraction, according to Rifai Mardin, a lecturer in architectural engineering from Tadulako University, is that this traditional house with stilt architecture is earthquake resistant. In addition, it is also resistant to floods and tsunamis. Of course, the height is not as high as the body of the building or above 2 meters from the ground floor of the house. It will also be able to survive if the water waves don’t carry huge water. He also believes that ancient people had sufficient knowledge about the conditions in which they lived. Moreover, people used to live with earthquakes in the past; this can be seen from the local culture, especially in the design of buildings.