If you travel through the country, you will see a lot
of Malaysian houses and villages. These villages are called
"kampongs" in
Bahasa Malaysia. Notice that they are built with stilts below and they
have large windows. This is mainly to keep the building cool and the
stilts elevate the building to keep them away from floods.
Kampong houses
are detached houses and they usually have no fences around them The
traditional Malaysian house
serves the housing needs of the majority of people
living in rural areas of Malaysia. It was evolved by the Malays over the
generations, and
adapted to their own needs, culture, and environment. Basically
a timber house with a post and lintel structure raised on
stilts, with wooden, bamboo, or thatched walls and
a thatched roof, the house is designed to suit the tropical
climate.
Ventilation and solar-control devices, and
low thermal capacity building materials are part of the
building heritage. House construction is highly systematized, like a modern prefabrication system, but with a
much higher degree of flexibility and variation. The house components are made on the ground and later assembled
on the building site. A very sophisticated addition system,
which allows the house to grow with the needs of the user, is
an advantage for the poor because it allow them to invest and build
gradually rather
than shouldering one huge initial financial burden.
The traditional Malaysian housing process is
highly autonomous, largely controlled
by the user. Guided by building
tradition and the village carpenter,
the owner-builder designs a house
that is uniquely suited to the family's
socioeconomic and
cultural situation.
Not only does the traditional approach foster
a better match of house
to user, it keeps the cost down by
eliminating the
need for professional intermediaries such as architects or developers.
Self-help and cooperative
labour are the resources upon which
the owner-builder relies. The traditional
Malaysian house has an open interior, promoting good cross
ventilation and lighting and allowing the space to be used for many purposes depending on the season,
occasion, or time of day.
Since most activities take place on
the floor, the need for furniture is minimal; bedding materials
and sleeping mats are rolled up and stored during the day to
eliminate the need for separate living and sleeping quarters.
Interior spaces are defined, not by partitions or walls, but
rather by changes in floor level; they may be respected or
ignored, allowing the house to accommodate larger numbers of people
than usual during, for example, feasts.
Thus the
traditional Malaysian house exhibits
greater versatility and more efficient use of space
than does the modern house, where spaces are limited to the
specific use determined by furniture and partitions.
The traditional Malaysian house
has, over the years, evolved a very efficient addition
system that grows according to the needs of its users. The
core unit, or the ibu rumah, is the basic living
unit for the small or poor family. The kitchen and
toilet are often located on the exterior.
From
the ibu
rumah, many additions
can be
made as the family
grows bigger or as it acquires the
means to build a bigger house.
Additions
are usually done in the spare
time available during the agricultural
or fishing off-seasons.
Building a traditional
house is a continual process,
often taking months or even years
to complete, with the pace of work
and quality of construction controlled by the user.
The basic addition possibilities are classified
into three different types,
but there
are infinite variations in sizes and heights, and
various combinations of types
and quality according to the needs
of the user.
Various traditional houses can be
identified in Peninsular Malaysia. They are classified mainly by their
roof shapes. The basic houseforms are the bumbung panjang, bumbung lima,
bumbung perak and bumbung limas
The most common houseform is the bumbung
panjang, characterised by a long gable roof. The bumbung panjang houses
are the oldest identified in Peninsular Malaysia, many of them being over
a hundred years old and still in good condition.
The bumbung panjang is the simplest of the
four houseforms. It has a simple gable roof, supported by kingposts. The
most common roofing material used for the bumbung panjang is the attap (a
thatch made from nipah and other palm trees found in the local natural
vegetation).
The simple bumbung panjang roof-form is
most efficient in its ventilation properties. Its simple funnel shape, the
use of ventilation grilles at its gable ends (tebar layar), and the use of
ventilation joints allow good ventilation of the roof, space which cools
the house effectively. The roof is simple and easy to construct, and this
partly explains the popularity of this houseform among the poorer
villagers and those who build houses themselves. The bumbung panjang, due
to its simplicity, is a very efficient roof-form for making additions to
the house. The bumbung lima, bumbung limas and bumbung perak are all
houseforms which are not indigenous but developed through foreign
influence. The bumbung lima and bumbung perak houses are believed to have
been influenced by colonial Dutch and British houseforms. The bumbung lima
house has a hipped roof, the bumbung perak house has a gambrel roof and
the bumbung limas house has a pyramidal roof. Of these three foreign
houseforms used in Malaysian houses, the bumbungperak houseform (also called
bumbungpotongan Belanda [Dutch-type] roof in the East Coast) is the most
popular.
