More Than Meets the Eye: Multisensory Experiences in Javanese Traditional Architecture

Abstract

Adaptive reuse increasingly repositions Javanese aristocratic dwellings (ndalem) as commercial and cultural venues, yet the literature on heritage atmosphere has been dominated by visual and architectural analysis, leaving the full sensorium of these buildings comparatively unexamined. Ndalem Ngabean, a former princely residence in Yogyakarta offers a vantage point from which to ask how visitors and custodians construct a sense of authenticity through bodily, multisensory engagement rather than through visual appraisal alone. This study employed a qualitative phenomenological design through in-depth semi-structured interviews and triangulated with observation, then analysed using thematic analysis. Findings reveals Visual experience was structured around authenticity and splendour in the heritage gaze, anchored in the genuineness of teak joglo construction. Auditory experience cohered around a gamelan soundscape functioning as a vehicle of sacred calm. Olfactory experience was distinguished by the deliberate absence of scent. Tactile and thermal experience merged into a single embodied theme of coolness and material authenticity felt in the body. The findings extend Pallasmaa's and Zumthor's phenomenology of architecture into a non-Western, commercially adapted heritage context, demonstrating that multisensory restraint rather than embellishment is the key mechanism sustaining perceived authenticity in living heritage sites.