Malay houses
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Malay houses are traditional dwellings, originating before the arrival of foreign or modern influences, and constructed by the indigenous ethnic Malay and Orang Asli peoples of the Malay Peninsula and their related Bumiputra tribes of East Malaysia.
Whereas peninsular Malays have single extended-family houses, many of the Borneo people built rumah panjang or 'long-houses' hosting many families, each in its own 'apartment' with a common wide veranda linking the front.
Traditional architectural forms, such as tropically-suited roofs and harmonious proportions with decorative elements are considered by traditionalists to still have relevance. However traditional buildings require significant maintenance compared to modern construction. These traditional skills are gradually being lost as Malaysia continues its process of industrialisation.
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[edit] Construction
Using renewable natural materials including timber and bamboo, the dwellings are often built without the use of metal including nails. Instead pre-cut holes and grooves are used to fit the timber elements into one another, effectively making it a ‘prefabricated house’. In Sarawak and Sabah rattan ropes were used to fasten bamboo pieces together.
Although nails had been invented and in later houses used minimally for non-structural elements (for example, windows or panels), structural flexibility was a benefit which nailing inhibited. Without nails, a timber house could be dismantled and reconstructed in a new location. This was done for the restored Rumah Penghulu Abu Seman, which was transported from Kedah to Kuala Lumpur by Badan Warisan Malaysia, the Malaysian Heritage Foundation. Over short distances, the nail-free flexibility and relatively lightweight timber allowed a house to be lifted on many shoulders through gotong-royong (neighbourhood helping) and carried to another spot.
[edit] Design
Traditional timber houses incorporated design principals relevant in contemporary architecture such as shading and ventilation, qualities present in the basic house features. A main characteristic of a typical kampung house is its on stilts or piles. This was to avoid wild animals and floods, to deter thieves, and for added ventilation. In parts of Sabah, the number of dowry buffaloes could even depend on the number of stilts there are in the bridal family’s home.
A traditional Malay timber house usually in two parts: the main house called Rumah Ibu in honour of the mother (ibu) and the simpler Rumah Dapur or kitchen annex, which was separated from the main house for fire protection. Proportion was important to give the house a human scale. The Rumah Ibu was named after the spacings between stilts which are said to typically follow the arms-spread width of the wife and mother in the family of the house when being built. At least one raised veranda (serambi) is attached to the house for seated work or relaxation, or where non-familiar visitors would be entertained, thus preserving the privacy of the interior.
For ventilation, the elevation of the house and also its many windows, holed carvings and slatted panels around the walls plus the high thatch or clay tile roofs all contribute to the cooling ambience. However the presently popular use of exposed zinc sheets, because of its ease of installation and cheap supply, unfortunately increases heat and is noisy during rain.
Traditional roofs are pitched to drain off rainwater quickly. There are two broad categories: ‘bumbung panjang’ long roof type with open gable ends or the ‘bumbung lima’/‘limas’ pyramidal variations. Both types a variety of roof design, and some forms are peculiar to certain areas or community groups, such as the upward curves of the Negeri Sembilan-style Minangkabau house.
Traditional house roofs have wide overhangs for shading and protection from heavy tropical downpours. In many cases they have carved timber eaves to decorate the ‘visual connection’ between roof and sky. Some roofs hold attic bedrooms, effectively making the already raised structure 3 storeys. Older Malay palaces were up to five or six storeys high built entirely in nail-free timber, as in Negeri Sembilan’s Seri Menanti palace.
[edit] Decoration
Each state or ethnic group has its own regional or group style of house or preferred details. For example, in Melaka the staircase is always decoratively moulded and colourfully tiled. In Peninsular Malaysia’s east coast, many houses have distinctive carved roof gable-end boards akin to those in Thailand and Cambodia.
[edit] Cultural references
Most of the ancient Malay peoples of South-East Asia maintained a form of self-regenerating environmental culture. Since their houses were built in timber, it was a custom that for every child born, the parents would plant at least one tree in the family compound or kampung (village) orchard on behalf of that child. Usually the most popular tree would be the coconut 'tree of a thousand uses' but in the hinterlands even hardwood shoots were known to be planted for each child, so that each may use it when the time comes to build a home after they marry. In some areas the practice was quite sensibly a coconut tree for a female baby and hardwood trees for males.
[edit] Types
- Rumah Limas - Predominantly found in Johor, Malacca, Pahang, Terengganu and Selangor.
- Rumah Melaka - Predominantly found at Johor and Malacca.
- Rumah Minangkabau - Predominantly found at Negeri Sembilan.
- Rumah Bumbung Panjang Selangor - Predominantly found in Selangor.
- Rumah Kutai - Predominantly found in Perak and northern Selangor.
[edit] Further reading
- Ariffin, A. Najib; "A Disappearing Heritage: The Malaysian Kampung House", in Heritage Asia (Kuala Lumpur: Mediahub), September 2005, 6-8 -Passages in the above entry appear with permission of the Author/Publisher
- Lee Ho Yin, "The Kampong House: An Evolutionary History of Peninsular Malaysia's Vernacular Houseform," in Asia's Old Dwellings: Tradition, Resilience, and Change, ed. Ronald G. Knapp (New York: Oxford University Press), 2003, 235-258.
