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Chapter 2: Malaysian Vernacular Architecture and Its Relationship

to Climate

2.1 Vernacular Architecture of Traditional Malay House

2.1.1 Vernacular Settlements

Vernacular architecture includes dwellings and other buildings which relate to their

environment and available resources. They are customarily owner or community-

built, utilising traditional technologies from one generation to the next (Oliver, 1997

and 2003). Hanafi (1994) suggests that agriculture and fishing activities are the two

main areas of work during ancient times of the early Malay settlements. Tjahjono

(2003) claims that rural settlements have grown in geographically distinctive

locations that vary from hilltops, valleys, riverbanks, lowlands, estuaries and coastal

areas, with each area developing different types of economy, social organization and

built environment.

The opening of new settlements in unexplored areas by the newly migrated families

starts the traditional Malay settlements or ‘kampong’ (Figure 1). This migration is an

individual family or in a group (originating from the same district in Malay

Archipelago) to the surrounding regional areas, either by land or water

transportation. After several generations, a modern kampong normally has a number

of households and is led by a headman. Migration has expanded their original culture

such as language, customary laws and vernacular architecture to the new area.

Figure 1: Spontaneous Malay 'Kampong' Environment (Idid & Salim, 2011).

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2.1.2 Functions and Social Interaction

The construction elements in Malay vernacular architecture are light timber-framed

structures, forming elevated floors, sloping long roofs with large overhangs, louvered

windows, timber or woven bamboo walls and screenings (on the upper walls). In

terms of spatial elements, the basic spaces of the serambi, rumah ibu and dapur are

the most common in a traditional Malay house (Figure 2). Although these houses

have variations, elements such as spatial, functional and physical could be

determined as the most common among them (Ismail & Ahmad, 2006). Table 1

shows the common uses and privacy levels of interior spaces in a traditional Malay

house.

Table 1: The Uses and Privacy Level of Internal Spaces in Traditional Malay House.

Figure 2: The Internal Layout of Andak Endah House, 1920 (Image by the Author).

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The traditional Malay house can be divided into front and back sections, which are

centred around the rumah ibu (the core house) and the dapur (kitchen) respectively

(Yuan, 1987: 34). The serambi, in any event, will be at the front, followed by the

rumah ibu and dapur. This arrangement is similar in all Malay houses and closely

reflects the social interaction in Malay communities. According to Chen, et al.

(2008), the traditional forms of Malay houses in Peninsula Malaysia can be divided

into five groups. The groups are identified by the similarities detected in the Malay

houses of the west Malay states in Peninsula Malaysia. More than 200 cases supplied

by the Center for the Study of Built Environment in the Malay World (KALAM)

have been analyzed, and are categorized below in Table 2.

Table 2 also shows the internal spaces that are normally associated with Malay

houses according to the group. A basic form is often used in Group 1, Group 3 and

Group 4, where normally the dapur is associated with the rumah ibu without using

the selang or pelantar as a link. The selang or pelantar are usually found in Group 2

and Group 5, and this shows that the Malay houses in these groups have expanded

form. In this study, two prototype houses were obtained from KALAM for basic

form and expanded form: Datuk Baginda Tan Mas Mohar and Andak Endah.

Table 2: Internal Spaces Found in Traditional Malay House by Groups (Extracted from Chen, et al., 2008)

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2.1.3 Proportions

Figure 3 shows the proportionate rules of traditional Malay house forms, based on

two examples of traditional Malay houses supplied by KALAM; the proportion of

stilts and walls height of the houses is equivalent as a proportion of X, while the roof

height measured from the roof eaves to the ridge is a proportion of 2X.

Figure 3: Proportionate Rules of Traditional Malay House (Images by the Author).

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2.2 Architectural Qualities

2.2.1 Serambi

The serambi is the smallest space among the other spaces. In some cases of the

twelve-column house, this space usually accommodates a quarter of the house, and

the floor level will always be lower than the rumah ibu floor level. The form of the

serambi is usually rectangle and in some cases is an extraordinarily long narrow

space (Chen, et al., 2008).

This area can be constructed with or without perimeter walls; however, it tends to

look like a semi-outdoor space with numerous daylighting from the openings. Figure

4 shows the location of serambi space in two examples of Malay houses. The

serambi in the house of Andak Endah has no walls, while the other serambi in the

house of Tan Mas Mohar is built with walls.

The importance of the serambi is to serve as the first greeting space for guests after

entering the house (Yuan, 1987). In a traditional Malay kampong, houses are built in

random positions but can be seen from the distance. The serambi in this case will be

the place for social interaction within the neighbourhood, and for parents to monitor

their children playing in the yard.

Figure 4: The Location of Serambi in Traditional Malay Houses (KALAM, 1986; 1996).

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2.2.2 Rumah Ibu

The rumah ibu is the core space of the Malay house. This has the largest area,

highest floor level and highest roof level (Yuan, 1987: 37). In respect of the needs

and privacy of family members, bedrooms are provided, but the number is flexible

and depends on family size (Figure 5). Lighting in this space is reduced to provide

coolness. (Yuan, 1987). Moreover, this space also has an uncomplicated furniture

arrangement (Chen, et al., 2008).

The rumah ibu is usually used for official events and a place for treating well-known

guests or close relatives. Official ceremonies relating to customs are also carried out

here. These include engagement, marriage and wedding ceremonies. On normal

days, this space will be for relaxing, reading, mingling with other family members,

and for use as a sleeping area at night (Chen, et al., 2008).

Figure 5: The Location of Rumah Ibu in Traditional Malay Houses (KALAM, 1986; 1996).

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2.2.3 Dapur

The kitchen, or dapur, is always situated at the back of the house (Yuan, 1987: 38).

The functions of this space are for cooking, washing and eating. The basic layout of

a Malay house will include a dapur within the rumah ibu, but in some cases the

dapur will be connected with a pelantar, a roofless platform, or a selang. This, on

the other hand, is an enclosed space that serves as a walkway and used as a second

entrance for females during a ceremony (Figure 6).

Although the dapur is the last space in the house, it holds the prestigious function of

family gatherings where dining takes place together with other family members.

Therefore, the dapur has a large space, which is considered the second largest in a

Malay house.

Figure 6: The Location of Dapur in Traditional Malay House (KALAM, 1996).

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2.3 Construction Systems

2.3.1 Materials

Traditional building materials such as wood and palm leaves are usually taken

directly from nearby forests (Yuan, 1987). Table 3 shows the types of wood used in

three different construction parts in a Malay house. Wood can be easily found in

Malaysia, but nowadays the price of wood is very high and is therefore used

primarily for export rather than as a building material. Other materials such as palm

trees are also widely available. This material is good for roof finishes as it releases

heat readily; however, it does not survive as long as the other materials and needs to

be changed regularly.

Table 3: The Types of Wood Used in Malay House (Extracted from Yuan, 1987).

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2.3.2 Structural Components

As a lightweight timber structure, a traditional Malay house regularly uses posts and

a lintel timber structure. The posts rest on concrete or stone footings without any

foundation required (Yuan, 1987). The structural framework for the house consists of

posts braced by floor joists and roof girders, as shown in Figure 7. Using

prefabricated construction methods where all the components are made and

assembled on site allows the house to be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere in

different locations.

Figure 7: Basic Construction Methods of Malay House (Yuan, 1987).

Figure 8 shows that a basic Malay house construction starts by placing the first

column, known as a tiang seri (located in the middle of the house). Meanwhile, other

structural components such as posts and girts are laid in their respective positions.

After all the posts and girts have been erected and braced, top girts and king posts are

then set up at both sides. Following that, the roof ridge supported by king post is

placed, and subsequently the roof structures such as principal rafters, purlins and

common rafters are put up. Finally, the non-structural components are placed to

make the house an enclosed structure.

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Figure 8: The Erection of Basic Traditional Malay House Form (Yuan, 1987).

2.3.3 Non-Structural Components

The non-structural components are windows and panels for the floors, walls, stairs

and roofs fitted between the frames (Figure 9). Window components can be divided

into three operable sections, the top, middle and bottom (Yuan, 1987). The top

section, called ornamentation, is a fixed ventilation panel that is usually well

decorated and carved.

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Figure 9: The Non-Structural Components of Traditional Malay House (KALAM, 1996).

The floor is one of the non-structural components in a traditional Malay house. It is

nailed on the floor joist, and it is also common to leave gaps between the planks to

facilitate activities of cleaning (sweeping and washing) or for religious needs

(bathing the family member’s deceased). Figure 10 shows the gap-floor area location

in the rumah ibu space.

Figure 10: The Location of Gap-Floor Area in Andak Endah House (KALAM, 1996).

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2.4 Adapting to the Climate

2.4.1 Malaysia’s Climate

Geographically, two separated land areas form Malaysia, which are Peninsula

Malaysia in the west, and the northern part of Borneo comprising Sabah and Sarawak

in the east. This country lies between latitude 10 to 7

0 North and longitude 100

0 to

1200 East. It can be said that Malaysia is located in the equatorial doldrums, with the

characters of uniform temperature, high humidity and copious rainfall all year round

(Malaysian Meteorological Department, 2012).

As a tropical country, Malaysia experiences high temperatures, with an annual mean

minimum temperature of 220C and an annual mean maximum temperature of 34

0C

(Hanafi, 1994). Figure 11 shows the average monthly rainfall and temperature for

Malaysia from 1990 to 2009. It suggests that the average temperature in a year

ranges from 25.50C to 26.5

0C, while the average rainfall is between 100mm to

300mm (University of East Anglia, 2012).

Figure 11: Average Monthly Temperature and Rainfall for Malaysia from 1990-2009 (CRU, University of East Anglia, 2012).

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Figure 12 shows the rainfall tabulation for Peninsula Malaysia in June and December

2011. In June the rainfall tabulation was uniformed throughout the Peninsula

Malaysia, while in December the rainfall was concentrated along the east coast.

Figure 13 displays the rainfall tabulation for Malaysia in March 2011, which showed

that the country received high rainfall all year long. This region has high humidity

with the lowest 67%; the average is more than 80% (Abdul Hussain Al-Obaidi &

Woods, 2006). The wind flow for Malaysia is light and variable. The location of this

country, specifically Peninsula Malaysia, is surrounded by the seas; this gives the

effect of sea and land breezes. In the afternoon, sea breezes of 5.14 to 7.71 m/s (10 to

15 knots) are common, reaching up to several tens of kilometres inland (Malaysian

Meteorological Department, 2012).

Figure 12: Peninsula Malaysia's Rainfall Tabulation in June and December 2011 (Malaysian Meteorological Department, 2012).

Figure 13: Malaysia's Rainfall Tabulation in March 2011 (Malaysian Meteorological Department, 2012).

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2.4.2 Traditional Malay ‘Kampong’

The unplanned arrangement of Malay houses indirectly helps to reduce the risk of

strong winds where settlements along coastal areas experience higher wind speed

than inland regions (Hanafi, 1994). The characters of a Malay kampong are detached,

and dispersed units with ample external spaces between them to allow fresh air

circulation (Hanafi, 1994).

However, the patterns of a traditional Malay kampong, which have similarities to

villages in Indonesia, can be described in two main types of spatial arrangement:

linear and concentric (Tjahjono, 2003). Figure 14 shows the linear and concentric

settlement patterns of a Malay ‘kampong’. For a linear pattern, houses face the

economic resources and transportation links such as roads, rivers or beaches; in a

concentric pattern, the serambi usually faces the public space located at the centre of

the houses.

Figure 14: Linear and Concentric Patterns of Traditional Malay 'Kampong'. (Images by the Author).

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In Malay house compounds, crop-bearing trees such as coconut trees and high-

branched fruity trees are planted (Yuan, 1987: 92; Hanafi, 1994). These trees have

various functions, such as to indicate individual boundaries, provide fruits, and shade

the pedestrian walkways (Figure 15). The open space compounds of a traditional

Malay kampong can encourage social interaction within neighbourhoods (Yuan,

1987: 93).

For religious reasons, most traditional Malay houses are oriented to face Mecca

(east-west direction), which indirectly minimizes the area of exposed walls to direct

solar radiation during the day (Yuan, 2011).

Figure 15: The External Environment of the Malay House (Yuan, 1987).

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2.4.3 Raised Floor

The uniqueness of a Malay house is that it is built on stilts. This approach in many

ways has several benefits from a thermal, functional and safety point of view. The

raised floor, which is built higher than the ground, can catch winds of a higher

velocity (Yuan, 1987: 71), and the use of timber planks for the floor, which have

gaps between them, can bring the air to the inner space. Hanafi (1994) suggests that

moist ground requires more sunlight to dry, and a raised floor is one of the solutions.

The wet climate does not just make the ground damp but can also cause floods.

Therefore, stilt heights vary between Malay houses located in the northern and

southern regions (Table 4).

Several research findings about stilt heights in traditional Malay houses have proved

those in the northern region have more height than those in the southern region

(Figure 16). The underneath space allocated by the raised floor can provide shelter

for the livestock, working space, and a clothes-drying area during rainy seasons.

Table 4: Findings on Stilts Height in Traditional Malay House.

Figure 16: The Height Difference of Stilts Between Northern and Southern Region Houses (Images by the Author).

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2.4.4 Walls and Openings

A traditional Malay house allows ventilation by having many full-length windows

and doors at body level (Yuan, 1987: 76). Hassan and Ramli (2010) conclude that the

large number of windows and openings aided by ornamentation at the perimeter

walls can contribute to the cross ventilation process (Figure 17). However, further

analysis by the same authors (2010) reveals that large openings on Malay house

walls create high air intakes outside to reduce the performance of the stack effect.

Table 5 shows detailed results of the study, which suggest that most of the indoor

and outdoor temperatures were higher than 280C. Furthermore, the humidity level in

the house is mostly higher than 60%. Meanwhile, the wind speed in the Malay house

ranges from 0.3 m/s to 3.4 m/s.

Table 5: Comparison of Comfort Level Between A Malay House in Penang and Tropical Region Recommendation (Extracted from Hassan & Ramli, 2010).

Figure 17: Climatic Design of Malay House (Yuan, 1987).

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2.4.5 Double-Slope Roof

Roof space in a traditional Malay house is properly ventilated by the provision of

ventilation joints and panels in the roof construction (Yuan, 1987: 75). Figure 18

shows the roof’s opening on both sides to allow air movement into the house

(Hanafi, 1994). As one of the indigenous materials, the attap roof used in Malay

houses has a low thermal capacity. This material does not retain heat and cools

immediately.

Another climatic responsive design of a double-slope roof is its gable ends. Having

various motive designs, this component also has ventilation panels which allow air to

flow into the roof space and cool the house (Yuan, 1987:111). As shown in Figure 19

the gable ends with ventilation in traditional Malay houses have various designs and

can reach up to about 5 to 9 metres high (Chen, et al., 2008).

Figure 18: Ventilation Openings in the Roof of Traditional Malay House (KALAM, 1986).

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Figure 19: The Gable Ends Designs of Traditional Malay House (Yuan, 1987).

From the two examples in Figure 20, the roof overhangs in the Andak Endah house

range from 1000mm to 1500mm, and the Datuk Baginda Tan Mas Mohar house has

overhangs ranging from 1400mm to 1600mm. Large overhangs and the low exposed

vertical areas (windows and walls) in a traditional Malay house provide good

protection against driving rain, good shading, and allow the windows to be left open

most of the time for ventilation (Yuan, 1987). Meanwhile, the roof angle for both

cases ranges from 300 to 60

0. The steep roof angle is used to quickly drain off any

rain falling onto the roof surface before it seeps through the layers of thatching (Lee,

2003:251).

Figure 20: The Roof Angles and Length of Overhangs in Traditional Malay Houses (Images by the Author).

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2.5 Summaries and Key Points

The random arrangement of houses in a Malay kampong with high coconut trees

promotes air movement and shade to the entire kampong. Meanwhile, the elevated

floors, full-length windows on the perimeter walls and openings on roof structures

allow large air movement into the house. Thus, the cross ventilation process can be

achieved and compared to the stack effect.

The front-to-back arrangement of a Malay house preserves the privacy levels of the

occupants. The serambi is one of the most important spaces and serves as an

interaction area within the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, the rumah ibu area can have

a flexible number of rooms according to the family size and needs. Therefore, the

house is always meeting the basic needs of the residents from time to time.

Furthermore, the lightweight materials such as timber, bamboo and attap roofing

have a great advantage in Malaysia’s climate. These materials perform better as they

cool down rapidly and heat up quickly during the day, even when there is a slight

difference in outside temperature (Saini, 1970).

As a tropical country, Malaysia receives a lot of sunshine and copious rainfall

throughout the year. These factors lead to high solar radiation, glare and traces of

rainwater to the exposed walls. Low thermal mass materials used in a Malay house

can release heat from solar radiation readily, while large overhangs can reduce glare

and traces of rainwater.

The full-length windows in a traditional Malay house are divided into three

components, which are top, middle and bottom. The middle and bottom components

are operable and can be shut separately, while the top component is carved open at

all times for ventilation. This system can allow air in according to residents’ needs.