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 communitybuilt, 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).

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).

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)

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).

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).

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 members 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 Malaysias 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 70 North and longitude 1000 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 340C
(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 26.50C, 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 highbranched 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 roofs 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 600. 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 Malaysias 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.

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