Malay house

Malay houses (Malay: Rumah Melayu; Jawi:

‫يو‬#‫ )رومه م‬are traditional dwellings, originating
before the arrival of foreign or modern
influences, and constructed by the indigenous
ethnic Malay of the Sumatra, Borneo and
Malay Peninsula.

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 A Malay traditional house in Kedah, adorned with distinctive
modern construction; how to preserve wooden carved panels of the northern Malay peninsula.
materials from the decaying effect of tropical
weather as well as termite problems. These
traditional skills are gradually being lost as Malaysia continues its process of industrialisation, while
in Indonesia traditional houses have still survived in rural areas. The effort to preserve indigenous
architectural styles of Indonesian archipelago has been conducted through documentation and create
replicas in provinces pavilions in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, Jakarta.

Contents
Construction
Design
Stilts
Stairs
Rooms
Roof
Decoration
Types
Gallery
See also
Further reading
References

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'.

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. Most of the ancient
Malay peoples of South-East Asia maintained a form of self-regenerating environmental culture.

Design
Traditional timber houses incorporated design principals relevant in
contemporary architecture such as shading and ventilation, qualities
present in the basic house features. Although Malay houses have
diversity of styles according to each states, provinces, and sub-ethnics,
there are common style and similarities shared among them:[1]

1. Built on stilts
2. Have stairs
3. Partitioned rooms
4. Vernacular roof
5. Adorned with decoration
A typical window of a Malay
house with slanted wooden
Stilts panels that can be adjusted
for ventilation.
Most of Malay houses are built as Rumah Panggung (lit: "stage house")
houses built on stilts. The main characteristic of a typical Malay
kampung house is its on stilts or piles. This was to avoid wild animals and floods, to deter thieves, and
for added ventilation. In Sumatra, traditionally stilted houses are designed to avoid dangerous wild
animals, such as snakes and tigers. While in areas located close to big rivers of Sumatra and Borneo,
the stilts help to elevated house above flood surface. 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.

Stairs
The traditional Malay house require stairs to reach the elevated interior. Usually the stairs connected
the land front of the house to the serambi (porch or verandah). Additional stairs might be found on
back of the house. The stairs can be made of wood or brick structure covered with tiles. For example,
in Melaka and Riau the staircase is always decoratively moulded and colourfully tiled.

Rooms
The interior is partitioned to create rooms such as serambi (verandah), living room, and bedrooms. 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 annexe, which was separated from the
main house for fire protection. The 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.

Roof
The roof of traditional Malay houses are designed to provide shade and protection from heat and rain,
as well as to provide ventilation. The basic design of a roof on a Malay house is gabled roof, an
extended frame with ornaments on the edges of the roof. The vernacular Malay roof is best suited for
hot and humid tropical climates. An example of the gabled roof can be found in the design of Rumah
Lipat Kajang. However a pyramidal styled pitched roof can also be found on houses such as the
Palembang Rumah Limas.

In Riau and Jambi there are several different styles, especially of the roof design. The Rumah Lancang
or Rumah Lontik have curved roof with boat-like structure on stilts.[2] The design somehow similar to
Minang Rumah Gadang. The Rumah Lipat Kajang have flat roof structure with crossing edges
forming "x" pinnacle on corners of the roof. The larger structure with similar crossed corner roof is
called Rumah Limas. This type of roof and structure often used in palaces of Malay kings as well as
government buildings. The Rumah Limas is also known as the traditional house of South Sumatra
and Sundanese West Java, although they have same "Rumah Limas" name, the design is slightly
different. The modern government and public buildings often based on Malay style roof design, such
as government buildings in Riau and Jambi, as well as the roof design of Muzium Negara in Kuala
Lumpur.

Decoration
Each Malay region, state or sub-ethnic groups has its own regional or group style of house with
preferred details. However most of Malay houses have a typical roof ornament, a crossed roof edge
structure forming "x"-like pinnacle ornament on the edge of the roof. This kind of ornament can be
found in Lontik, Lipat Kajang and Limas styles. In Peninsular Malaysia's east coast, many houses
have distinctive carved roof gable-end boards akin to those in Thailand and Cambodia.

Types
Rumah limas – Predominantly found in the city of Palembang and related with the nobles of the
Palembang Sultanate
Rumah Limas – A different styled Rumah Limas that can be found in Riau, Johor, Malacca,
Pahang, Terengganu and Selangor.
Rumah Lipat Kajang or Rumah Kejang Lako – Predominantly found in Jambi and Riau.[3]
Rumah Melaka – Predominantly found at Johor and Malacca.
 Rumah Lancang or Rumah Lontik – Predominantly found in Riau Kampar Regency.[2]
Rumah Belah Bubung – Predominantly found in Riau Islands.[4]
Rumah Kutai – Predominantly found in Perak and northern Selangor, based from Kutai
architecture.
Rumah Perabung Lima – Predominantly found in Kelantan and Terengganu.[5]
Rumah Gajah Menyusu – Predominantly found in Penang.[6]
Rumah Tiang Dua Belas – Predominantly found in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pattani.[7]
Rumah Bumbung Panjang – Predominantly found in Kedah, Perlis, Perak, Selangor, Johor and
Pahang.[8]
Rumah Air – Predominantly found in Brunei and Labuan.
Rumah Berbumbung Lima – Predominantly found in Bengkulu.

Gallery

Rumah Lancang or Rumah Lipat Kajang Malay house in A Sarawakian Malay

Rumah Lontik with a style, a Sumatran Sungailiat, Bangka traditional house in
curved roof and Riau Malay Island. Malaysian Borneo.
boat-like structure. A traditional house
Riau Malay with tiled stairs at
traditional house, Taman Mini
this is the Riau Indonesia theme
Pavilion Taman Mini park.
Indonesia theme
park.
Rumah Limas, a A Grand Malay The Istana
traditional derived from the Kenangan in Kuala
Palembang house. Lipat Kajang style Kangsar, Perak.
and extended with Built in the early
Limas roof style, 20th century as a
Riau Pavilion, temporary residence
Taman Mini for the Sultan of
Indonesia theme Perak.
park. This style of
structure is often
used in palace
architecture of
Malay kings, and in
government
buildings.

See also
Malay culture
Architecture of Indonesia
Architecture of Sumatra
Rumah adat

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
Effendy, Tenas; "Rumah, An Ode to the Malay House" (George Town, Penang: Areca Books),
2014.
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.
Yuan, Lim Jee; "The Malay House: Principles to Building Simple and Beautiful Homes for Comfort
 and Community" (Fox Chapel Publishing), 2010.

References
1. "Bangunan Melayu" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120923075920/http://melayuonline.com/ind/c
ulture/dig/803/bangunan-melayu). Melayu Online. Archived from the original (http://melayuonline.c
om/ind/culture/dig/803/bangunan-melayu) on 23 September 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
2. "Rumah Lancang" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120126044805/http://melayuonline.com/ind/cult
ure/dig/1917/rumah-lancang). Melayu Online. Archived from the original (http://melayuonline.com/i
nd/culture/dig/1917/rumah-lancang) on 26 January 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
3. "Rumah Kejang Lako" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120128080302/http://melayuonline.com/ind/
culture/dig/2573/rumah-kejang-lako). Melayu Online. Archived from the original (http://melayuonlin
e.com/ind/culture/dig/2573/rumah-kejang-lako) on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
4. "Rumah Belah Bubung" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120226223534/http://melayuonline.com/in
d/culture/dig/1887). Melayu Online. Archived from the original (http://melayuonline.com/ind/culture
/dig/1887) on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
5. Ahmad Tarmizi Sulaiman. "Perkembangan Berhubung Rumah Tradisional Melayu di Kelantan &
Terengganu" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110708150254/http://eprints.ptar.uitm.edu.my/1168/1
/AHMAD_TARMIZI_B._SULAIMAN_91_24.pdf) (PDF). UiTM. Archived from the original (http://epr
ints.ptar.uitm.edu.my/1168/1/AHMAD_TARMIZI_B._SULAIMAN_91_24.pdf) (PDF) on 8 July 2011.
Retrieved 16 May 2012.
6. "Rumah gajah menyusu di Kampung Perlis, Jalan Relau, Bayan Lepas, Pulau Pinang" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20140714164450/http://malaycivilization.ukm.my/MalayPortal/VIEW/UKM_BO
OK_VIEW?docname=HALIM_GrNA7110P84Gajah1&doctitle=Rumah%20gajah%20menyusu%20
di%20Kampung%20Perlis,%20Jalan%20Relau,%20Bayan%20Lepas,%20Pulau%20Pinang&boo
ktext). Malay Civilization. Archived from the original (http://malaycivilization.ukm.my/MalayPortal/V
IEW/UKM_BOOK_VIEW?docname=HALIM_GrNA7110P84Gajah1&doctitle=Rumah%20gajah%2
0menyusu%20di%20Kampung%20Perlis,%20Jalan%20Relau,%20Bayan%20Lepas,%20Pulau%
20Pinang&booktext) on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
7. Norazman Yunus. "Perbezaan Taman Mini Malaysia dengan yang asal" (http://eprints.ptar.uitm.ed
u.my/1322/1/NORAZMAN_BIN_MOHD_YUNUS_91_24.pdf) (PDF). UiTM. Retrieved 16 May
2012.
8. Kamarul Syahril. "Lukisan Terukur Rumah Melayu Tradisional di Malaysia" (http://buildingconserv
ation.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html). Retrieved 17 May 2012.

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