"Saturday morning, May 27, 2006 at 05:55 A.M (Western Indonesian Time), an earthquake measuring 5.9  Richter scale hit Yogyakarta and its surroundings. This earthquake made thousands of infrastructures  collapsed and severely damaged, even took thousands of life. One of the worst affected areas is Sengir sub-district, Sumberharjo Village, Prambanan, Sleman, Yogyakarta Special Region. The buildings and houses in this hillside area were destroyed and no longer possible to live in."

The flashback above is an explanation from Amin, one of the managers of Domes Houses Tourism Village. He also told the history which began with one of the non-profit social organizations, World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) in the United States which provided special relief in the form of domes houses under the name of Domes for the World for the residents of the relocation of Sengir in September 2006 with 80 units in total, consisting of 71 houses and 9 public facilities. The dome house is 7 meters in diameter for residential houses and 9 meters for public facilities.

The unique domes house design and  the first construction built in Indonesia become a consideration of Stube HEMAT students to have for study visit. The visit hosted by Daniel Prasdika opened students' insights and awareness of the threat of disasters in Indonesia, especially what threatens students' home areas. The group of Stube HEMAT Yogyakarta students was welcomed by Amin, the managers of the Domes House Tourism Area, and Heri as the vice chairman (Monday, 1/05/2023). Next, participants divided themselves into 4 groups, that each group is focusing on one topic covering the dynamics of tourist villages, building structures, how-to live-in domes houses, and the legality of the building. They went around and saw the domes' house and had a dialogue with the residents.

In the presentation, the tourism village dynamics group said that initially the domes house was not a tourist spot, however its unique shape like a moci cake provoked public to visit. Finally, local residents took the opportunity by creating a tourism village program and participated training to form a tourism village, even though it is currently vacant due to Covid-19. The building structure group described the domes house physically as having two floors where the lower floor is for the living room, two bedrooms and kitchen, while the upper floor is for storing goods or multipurpose rooms. Construction begins with making a floor foundation without digging the ground and it is just built on the ground. It became the hallmark of domes houses. After drying, a large balloon is set to create a hemispherical skeleton with woven iron construction. The group on how to live in a domes house revealed the shortcomings of the domes house, such as the warm temperature inside the house because the cast walls absorb heat, and the outer walls need special care. Its advantages are resistant to earthquakes, storms and even fires. Some residents said that after the earthquake, they were forced by condition to live there because they had nowhere else, next they needed time to adapt. The building legality group said that the status of the domes house was not yet free personal-own as the rent was Rp. 1 million/year paid to the village. Indeed, the local village government has taken care the property right, but until the activity is carried out the status is still uncertain.

This visit equips students with new knowledge, to be more sensitive to disaster threats, to learn how to create safer homes and to create economic opportunities as a tourist village. It seems a blessing in disguise, an invisible blessing of suffering. Finally, thank you for the knowledge, networks and tourist opportunities. ***