EWAP Gayo Highlands

EWAP [Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme] is a cultural grant programme at Oxford Brookes University, UK, and led by Professor Marcel Vellinga. Utilising the “Aceh Method”, the international team comprised of Darren Fong, Julie Nichols, and Cut Dewi from Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia, embarks on a mission to document heritage at risk in Gayo Highlands, Aceh, Indonesia.

The multimodal methods involve 2 weeks in the field, conducting CyArk scanning and manually drawing the vernacular architecture that is now rare and at risk of demolition. The longevity of these buildings is compromised due to the high cost of maintenance and sourcing suitable building materials and craftsmanship to refurbish the structure and make them weather tight. In this project, the UniSA team will undertake manual sketching of construction details and hand laser scanning to capture the full extents of the building enabling a digital model. The hand sketches will serve as callouts in the digital models. The UniSA team will add another refinement of the “Aceh Methods” to document the buildings, focused on the most significant aspects for knowledge retention.