We are Home Shelter —a small team of three: an architect graduated from Gadjah Mada University (UGM), a civil engineer from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITS), and a technical writer who had lived in Palu. It all started in January 2021, when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Mamuju, West Sulawesi. One of our founders, who was assisting with evacuations in a refugee camp at the time, witnessed firsthand how newly built houses collapsed due to improperly fastened steel joints, while traditional stilt houses in neighboring villages remained standing. That moment changed the way we view homes —not just shelters, but living fortresses that must be designed for disasters. Since then, Home Shelter has been born as a platform to bridge knowledge of earthquake-, cyclone-, and tidal flood-resistant construction with the real needs of homeowners in Indonesia.
Unlike typical home renovation sites that focus solely on wall paint or kitchen layouts, we focus on just one thing: home resilience to Indonesia’s climate and geological disasters . From the details of earthquake-resistant column-beam connections to selecting roofing materials that won’t easily come loose in strong winds, each guide we write is based on data from the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), earthquake zone maps from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), and firsthand experience in the field. For example, our article on house foundations in swampy areas—common in Kalimantan and Sumatra—was tested by one of our contributors who built his own house using a bamboo stilt system. We don’t write from an ivory tower; we go down to the disaster site, document the damage, and learn from actual construction failures.
Our commitment to quality means we never copy translations from foreign blogs without adaptation. Every recommendation must be implementable with materials readily available in Indonesian hardware stores—from SNI-compliant rebar to locally sourced clay roof tiles. We also test our recommendations ourselves: our team installed vibration sensors in our colleagues’ homes in Yogyakarta to compare the structure’s response to a small earthquake. All articles undergo two rounds of review: one by an architect, the other by a civil engineer, before going live. We’re not chasing clicks; we’re chasing one thing: every home renovated following our recommendations should be able to save lives in the event of a real disaster.
If you’re planning a home renovation, choosing a new building site, or even just want to make sure your home is ready for the rainy season and the threat of earthquakes, we invite you to explore the guides we’ve compiled since 2021. Start with our Contact Us page —where you can reach us for a quick consultation, or jump straight to our first article: “Understanding Structural Weaknesses in Earthquake Zone 3.” Your home is your family’s first line of defense. We’re here to help you build it right.