Lupa Masa
Lupa masa is a jungle camp in the heavy primary rainforest that cloaks the foothills of Mount Kinabalu. It is accessed by trekking 30mins into the rainforest from the village of Poring. The name for the camp came after a few bottles of wine. Reclining on siliu bamboo floor under a sheet of tarpaulin we bandied ideas around. Lupa Masa means forget time; get up when it gets light, rest when it gets hot and bathe in the cool evening when the six-o-clock cicada starts to call.
The architectural detailing is not prescriptive but adaptive. That’s how we’ve ended up with various patterns of rattan bound joints, bamboo slats and siliu bamboo floors. Siliu is the local name for split bamboo mat.
Lupa Masa is carbon neutral in operation. This is possible thanks to a steep fast flowing stream from Mt Kinabalu which drives a 3kW pico-hydro power plant, installed by Tonibung. The main building materials are bamboo and river stone rubble, both sourced on or near the site.
Project Data
Status: Completed June 2011
Procurement: Self Build
Design Team: Ian Hall and Sarah Greenlees
Poring is the local Dusun name for Gigantochloa levis, a species of bamboo that is one of the largest and strongest in Sabah. The bamboo grows up to 30m tall, and can be 5- 14cm in diametre, with walls up to 1.2cm thick. The village of Poring is so named due to the area’s abundance of this type of bamboo.
