Genius loci within Balinese dwellings environments: : the unlikely scenarios of urban development in Bali

Believing that an individual must arrange his life in perfect harmony with cosmic order, the Balinese create their indigenous dwellings according to a centuries-old tradition generated by their idea of cosmic harmony. As the Balinese are becoming socially more integrated with the outside world however, Balinese rural settlements have been slowly changing. Utilizing among others the space syntax method, structuralist and direct observation techniques, the paper aims to point out the changing spatial/formal pattern of the dwellings, the underlying forces affecting continuity and change in their dwelling environments, and further highlights the unlikely scenarios of expanding their settlements into somewhat larger urban settlements. An investigation into the global village patterns of Tihingan, an adat (customary laws) village characterized by high kinship differentiation, reveals that the weakening village boundaries and the changing spatial connectivity between houseyards are directly related to the weakening social differentiation between rival kin-groups and between different castes. An investigation into the houseyard patterns reveals how the inhabitants begin to change the way they generate and control encounters signaling their changing threshold of universe. Yet, the inhabitants’ desire to constantly maintain the ideal cosmic pattern of their settlements prompted them to initiate a new settlement elsewhere once the village has fully grown.