Traditional Malay House Construction

The design approaches of the traditional malay house in conjunction with the needs of achieving good ventilation are summarized as follow.

Traditional malay house construction. Kutai is a traditional type of malay house that is indigenous to perak. This allows the house to be easily taken apart and reassembled elsewhere. Open plan concept is adopted providing good ventilation. An architecture in which the structures the forms the building materials are determined by.

However traditional buildings require significant maintenance compared to modern construction. In its simplest form the traditional malay house is a structure raised on stilts high above the ground covered with thatched roofs enclosed with wooden walls and perforated with windows and lattices. The existence of kutai house is since the 1800s hence the name kutai which means old or ancient. Early malay houses can be described as raised on timber stilts and made of materials which were easily available from the tropical forests such as timber bamboo rattan tree roots and leaves.

The building mostly is a post and lintel structure with timber or bamboo walls and a thatched gabled shape roof. The traditional malay house is a timber house raised on stilts. Malay architecture is greatly affected by climate and weather. The size form and ornamentation of the houses depend on the size wealth and status of the family in the community.

Malay house architecture that evolves in function of cultural social economic and material changes. Usually the houses havepitched roofs verandahs or porches in front high ceilings and lots. It is basically a post and lintel structure that has been designed as respond to natural factor like flood underground dampness and to have better air ventilation and view to surrounding. Hence the traditional malay houses are almost always raised on timber stilts or pile to elevate and protect the building from floods and also serve as a source of natural ventilation.

How to preserve wooden materials f. For traditional malay house the body level is the most vital area for ventilation for comfort. The traditional malay houses are bamboo or timber houses raised on stilts timber. Materials and construction the traditional malay house relies for its strength on a complex jointing system made rigid by the use of timber wedges.

Malay houses are traditional dwellings originating before the arrival of foreign or modern influences and constructed by the indigenous ethnic malay of the malay peninsula sumatra and borneo.