Decaying like the very art which gave it birth, the Ilokano wooden house, much like the pinawid and tinidtid before it, is fast heading to oblivion. What is feared, along with the disappearance of this legacy is the impending amnesia of the art. And the more painful amnesia of the jargon.
Modern Ilokano builders may no longer know the methods and techniques accompanying the building of these structures. They may no longer be familiar with the panagsigo or art of making wooden post out of crooked or defective post materials. The steel spike, long the mainstay holding force of these structures are unheard of by builders nowadays. The lipay, concha or capiz is more used as an ornament than actual material for windows.
The busoran, the awanan, the delleg, the tirante, the paradipad, are Ilokano house structural terms, but they are also heading to oblivion in the Ilokano building parlance as English terms like beam, post, lintel, jamb are used by builders to construct concrete houses.
So long. March on we must. But before these houses finally bow out, it must be imperative to preserve at least a description of the method of building one. And to document too, the terms, before they will forever fade from our lexicon as a people.
I am looking for some old-fashioned carpenter / builder to teach me the method. Anyone? Or any one who wishes to construct a neo-American period Ilokano house? I would be very glad to document the process.