Introduction

This report is about understanding of Malay traditional houses. The 3 chosen

Malay houses are Limas house in Johor, Minangkabau house in Negeri Sembilan
and Long house in Sarawak. In this report, the topics that will be discussed are the
structural form of the house and its influences of contracting the houses. Besides
that, personal opinions are also included in this report to show how these case
studies open the writers mind. The method to gain the information regarding to
these case studies are through books and internet. From these sources, the
understanding of the Malay traditional houses become deeper.

Acknowledgement
Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my lecturer, Dr Hazrina binti Haja
Bava Mohidin for her guidance in making this report and her support. Besides that, I
am very thankful to my parents for their great support. And last but not least, my
friends who always give their opinions during the process.

Limas house in Johor.

History of Limas house.
Limas house is the adaptation of the Malay traditional house. This happened due
to the outside influences such as Netherlands, British, Islamic and Indonesia. This
style of house is very popular in the middle of 19 th century. The arrival of Western
colonialist to Tanah Melayu gave a huge impact to Malay architecture as their
influence changed the original Johor Malay traditional house called as long roof
house (rumah bumbung panjang) to Limas house. The architecture of the house
changed as the position of the roof is different from the original house. The Limas
word is created because the roof of the house has five ridges that being modified by
adding the triangular structure on the top of the roof.

Structure of Limas house

The basic of the house is the house is built with suitable height for Malay people.
There are still some Malay traditional house elements such as the decoration of the
base of columns house (kelarai design). The significant difference of Limas house
than other Malay house is the design of the roof.

Limas houses roof has a long ridge and it connects with other four ridges. On the
top of the roof, sharp pointed timbers are assembled and it called as tunjuk langit.
The functions of tunjuk langit are as a reminder for Malay people of the death. As
the design of tunjuk langit is looks like tombstone. The design is influenced by
Islamic religion influence as in this religion, it is essential to remind death every day
so that the followers will do good deeds and avoid committing bad things. Besides
that, tunjuk langit is a symbol of humans receiving light from the sky. That is the

reason people can see that Malay people use sufism elements in building their
houses.
Moreover, the shingles of the roof is quite huge and steep. This design allows to
trap the air to reduce the temperature of the house as the climate at Tanah Melayu is
warm and humid. At the gable of the roof, they carved with floral or moon or sunrise
pattern. The pattern always related to the belief of one god as the patterns mean the
light from good that is needed by the followers. Besides those patterns, there are
also calligraphy pattern that is an allegory of syahada which connect the followers
and the Almighty God.
The house is built above the columns of the house. They design the house on the
columns because they want to avoid from damp and moist ground as the house is
made of timber. Besides that, they want to avoid the invasion of wild animals
because Malay people live near the forest. To solve the flood problem they built the
house above the pillar so that the water will not enter the house during flood season.
The below space of the house (polong) is used as storage. The advantage of this
design is the house will always comfortable to stay although the climate of the area
is warm as the air circulation system is being considered during they build the house.

It is a Malay culture to build a house to face sunrise or sunset. This is for the
direction of qiblat for them to pray and control the temperature in the house. Look at
the windows, they applied many styles of window design but the most common style
is French window. They used this design to allow the air and light enter the house.
For the low positioning of the windows is because Malay people like to sit on the
floor to do their activities.
The floor plan of Limas house is important in constructing the house because it
shows how the Malay people live. The house is divided into three parts, the front
part, middle part and the back part. The front part of the house is called as rumah
ibu. Rumah ibu has a large space (anjung) for the family and guests to gather during
ceremonies. While, the living room is a place where the owner can show the
prosperity of the owner. On the wall of living room is carved with floral pattern and
finished with golden coloured finishing.

Before entering a Limas house there is a veranda (serambi or selasar) which is a

space connect the outside and inside of the house. This is the space where the
owner welcoming the guest who comes to the owners house. Besides that, it also a
place for them to do their activities such as resting and working. Moreover, the
number of staircase connected from the ground to veranda is in odd number
because in Malay culture, they believe that even number is perfection and the
perfection is only for the Almighty God. The odd number of staircases shows that
humans are not perfect and fragile. This shows how religion influences the Malay
architecture.

In Limas house, there are always many bedrooms for the parents, sons, daughters
and guests who visited them. This happened due to the religion factor as the religion
teaches the followers to take care of everyone and respect the boundary between
man and woman. Rumah belakang is the kitchen of the house. The kitchen has a
space for the mother to wash dishes and clothes. One of the reason they separate
the house into a few parts is they want to minimise the damage of the house when
the house is catch by fire. Because the accident often occurred and the cause is
come from the kitchen. Therefore, the separation can help to control the fire from
damaging the whole house.
In my opinion, Limas house is suit the purpose and needs of the people at that time
because in building the house they considered many factors and possibilities may
happen to the house and occupants of the house. As they built a house that can
reduce the heat trapped in the house and avoid any unfortunate circumstances such
as flood and wild animals invasion. I am very impressed and awe with the design of
Limas house because they can build a functional house according to the needs of
the society without using technology nowadays.

Minangkabau house in Negeri Sembilan

History of Minangkabau house
Minangkabau house or Radang house is an Indonesian architecture of Minang
people who came to live in Tanah Melayu. In the early 14 th century, the Minangkabau
people came to Negeri Sembilan through Malacca and settled down at Rembau. At
that time, Minangkabau people is more civilised compared to native people. Although
they are different, they live together peacefully. That is why the marriage between
them created a new tribe called Biduanda. This is when they practiced their culture in
Tanah Melayu including the architecture of Minangkabau house.

Structure of Minangkabau house

The whole idea of Minangkabau house is the design of Minangkabau and long roof
as the roof are different from other Malay traditional houses. The roof is storeyed
and covered by palm leaves. Besides that, the roof is curved upwards and pointed
at the end of roof. When the guest looks from the outside the roof looks like buffalos
horns. According to history, it is an illustration from their folks story of the victory of
bullfight which the Minangkabau exists. At the gable of the roof they carved with the
floral, crossed and filigree pattern to add the aesthetic value for the roof.

The presence of the veranda is at the front of the house. From the veranda people
will enter the front part of the house called rumah ibu. Malay people adding an
aesthetical value at the veranda by carving crossed filigree pattern. While the stair
design is simple, they designed the stair with interesting keys design to make the
stairs.
The house is decorated with many timber carve around the house and the motive
of the carve are crossed and graphic flowers. The large space in front part of house
(anjung), veranda and rumah ibu have different floor level. Rumah ibu has the
largest space in the house and there are a room and stair to attic. This attic has a
size and the height of the roof. The attic is the bedroom for the sons because the
gradient of the stairs is not appropriate for the daughters. The rumah ibu is an open
space and it links with rumah dapur. There is a space which it called as selang. This
space is a part of rumah dapur and do not have wall or partition. The function of
selang is a place for mothers to chat and cook.

The level of window is very low. This is because Malay people like to do their
activities by sitting on the floor rather than stand up. Minangkabau house has a place
called rumah tangga. Rumah tangga is the first place people will come before
entering the house. Usually rumah tangga do not have walls and open. For
Minangkabau house, the veranda usually in a large scale of size for the guests sit
when they are having celebrations.

For this case study, I learnt that Malay traditional houses are influenced by many
factors. Like the Minangkabau house, I can see the assimilation of Indonesia and
Tanah Melayu cultures. This assimilation cultures shows how they can live in one
place with different culture. Besides that, this assimilation helps the civilisation of the
native people of Tanah Melayu to better a better person.