Traditional Dorze huts/houses

SettlementThe Dorze are a small ethnic group in Ethiopia who speak a language in the omotic family.

Numbering approximately 28,000.

They also are farmers, who prevent soil erosion by ingenious terracing of the mountainside.

Dorze people lives southwest Ethiopia in the mountains north of Arba Minch and they are famous for their huge huts, resembling a giant beehive. Although these huts look fragile, they can last up to 60 years. The huts can also be transported to another locations, thanks to the structure made of vertical poles.                           Traditional Dorze huts/houses

In the middle of the hut there is an open fire for cooking. There are also low benches to sit around the fire. Along the walls are located sleeping places and places for storage.

Smaller huts can include guest houses, a workshop kitchen and even cattle shed.

                                   Dorze huts

The chencha house is found in a small relatively high area west of lake margarita, South of the city of the city of boroda. Chencha and it’s surroundings are the home of the dorze tribe, an industrious people renowned for their skill in weaving. The chencha house is more oval than hemi-spherical in shape. The height of the hut sometimes exceeds 8 m, and is usually not less than 6 m. Apparently there is a good reason for making it as high as it is. As soon as the portion which is directly in contact with the soil begins to rot, as indeed it does, the whole house is sunk to an appropriate extent allowing the fresh portion of the wall to come in contact with the earth. This is done as often as necessary until the hut becomes too low for normal human activities to take place inside it. As a rule the

Design principles

Symmetry

The entire house is constructed with almost blind walls except the door and smoke outlets.

Constructions are carried out with scale variation for different purposes but with the

same form.

A main space integrated with a second airy space forming the nose like entrance.

Every hut hat a sort of ''nose'' at its south side, serving as reception room. After our eyes were accustomed at the rather darkness, coming from the full sunlight, it was interesting to see the construction of the hut from the inside. It’s surprising the large space in the hut when outside it looked so small.                                                   Inside Dorze hut

Interestingly opportunity for pen for animals are made available in theDorze towering huts. This makes it possible to protect animals from the vagaries of the weather as well as animal rustlers.         Dorze hut: animals live inside with the people

The flooring, the walls and the roofing and even the partitions are made from bamboo.

The doors are usually made of timber.

The leaves are used for finishing.

Material collection and preparation

(Building sequence)

The Dorze houses are constructed entirely from organic material :

Bamboo Enset (false banana) leaves Grass Timber

Building a house is very similar to weaving a basket. They can measure up to 9 m tall.

.

Bamboo with a good quality is brought construction begins.

The doors are usually made of timber.

The bamboo cover is separated from trunk.

Bamboo will be ready for construction by splitting it in to three parts with the help of an axe or knife.

Bilkers standing inside house on scaffolding and pulling a wet strip in to a place

Partially completed house; note scaffolding protruding

The Dorze house is almost exclusively made from bamboo.

Builder adding katla thatch

Man spilling inner fibers away from bamboo splint to obtain bamboo to wave a fence

House being moved; men are inside, women outside; people brace it with long bamboo poles to keep it from falling as it comes downhill

When termites attack the hut, the Dorze can just remove it from its foundation and relocate it. This allows the home to last much longer, but every move shortens the height of the hut.