Traditional Malay House Roof

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.

Traditional malay house roof.

Usually the houses havepitched roofs verandahs or porches in front high ceilings and lots of big openings for ventilation purposes. The size form and ornamentation of the houses depend on the size wealth and status of the family in the community. The house style is influenced by the bugis of sulawesi indonesia. Mansard roofs are a popular option for buildings wishing to maximize the amount of living space in the building providing the option to use the loft as an additional living space.

Derived from a malay word that means city of lions singhora refers to roofing tiles that are made of clay and moulded manually with hands and legs. This gives a psychological effect of coolness as strong light is often mentally associated with heat. The traditional malay house is a timber house raised on stilts. Roofs clad with singhora tiles are unique to malay houses in the east coast of the peninsula.

Rumah limas limas house also known as rumah bari old house is a type of traditional house found in palembang south sumatra indonesia. 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. A mansard roof is a four sided gambrel roof with each side having a double slope of one steep slope and one shallow upper slope. 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 house is traditionally built of wood and raised on stilts with a stepped or gradated floor composed of two to five areas at slightly different heights with a broad porch and a distinctive roof. It is easily recognized by the long ridged roof which is joined to four ridges which project outwards to the four edges of the roof. They can also be found in baturaja.

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. And speaking of roofs a heritage malay architecture called singhora comes to mind.