Local culture through architectural ornaments in modern house living

Sustainability has been a popular topic for surviving some global problems, and a former researcher has discussed culture preservation as a fourth pillar in reaching sustainable development goals. Unfortunately, cultural heritage preservation often goes wrong, making it stuck inside an ancient historical or traditional tourism building. This romantic conception of preservation differs from the sustainability conception that discusses future living strategies. On the other hand, Eko Prawoto, as an architect, artist, and culture practitioner, showed the experience of living with culture through his current house-living projects. He created local sustainability through his knowledge of making new house-living ornaments. This research discussed the implication and new way of living with the culture as a sustainability strategy in modern house living from an emic perspective. It focused on the ornaments in two house-living projects by Eko Prawoto as a research subject. Tectonic architecture became the background knowledge in this qualitative architectural biography research. This research shows how tectonic architecture created local sustainability through new ornaments in modern house living. This result shared a new perspective and a rule-breaker in such outdated preservation thinking with the government, architects, and modern citizens. It could be developed as essential thinking for the next researcher to discuss tectonic architecture and culture. It is crucial to broaden the knowledge of culture as a modern way of living and explore new creative thinking to see more than just ancient and future boundaries but to make it a new strategy of living.