Cherating: Interior Architecture Workshop 2013

Aloha, readers! We're back from our 'workshop' in Cherating, Pahang and thought we'd shared something with you guys.

The sun, beach and fun!

We were in this beach for three days two nights, getting randomly tanned and bruised and cut but we wished to prolong the moment there, no assignments, just fun.

L-E-O

The many selca of our dear photographer, everywhere and everyday of the trip, there'd be at least one with different groups of people.

She saw Emma's 'future husband' fleeing 

Picture of the post: Leo's shocked expression. Also, note that Emma wished (really hard) to meet The ONE as soon as possible and get married, so be nice and introduce her to someone!

P.S. Our Raya celebration has been postponed to a later date, so updates will be limited to introductions only, sorry.

CHAPTER 3.3: Traditional Malay House Activities

Ciao, again. We're back with the activities inside the house, as promised, viewer discretion is advised, be warned.

The various activities throughout the house

As what we did for the kedai runcit, we did it for this house to show the activities more clearly.

1. Rumah ibu - although not common in traditional Malay houses, the rumah ibu here is converted to a living and sleeping area since there is only one occupant in the house.

2. Rumah dapur - typically a well ventilated kitchen area which incorporates the dining area to reduce fuss.

3. Bathroom - simple extension of the house to allow hygienic dispositions.

4. Water closet - presumably an outhouse in the past (now slightly modernized) to allow necessary bowel movements and such.

5. Rumah ibu (again, this is not a typo) - since she lives alone, she has a large space to herself in the rumah ibu, in which she uses also as a praying area.

To simply put it, the traditional Malay house was built for essentiality and comfort which is apparent to us when we visited the house as it was perfectly habitable without the excessive gadgets of modern day.

And this ends our third chapter. The commencement of the next chapter would probably be up soon enough so reread the blog until we come back with new materials. Goodbye!

CHAPTER 3.2: The Traditional Malay House and Its Relationships

Auntie and what makes her happy

After explaining the rituals and customs related to the traditional Malay house, we now arrive to the topic of an actual house we found in Dusun Tua. As mentioned in previous posts, the house we've visited and studied on belongs to an old lady we know as Ms. Latifah (she's not married), but we'll just call her auntie.

The traditional Malay house with its surrounding elements

Referring to the image above, the houses within the compound area are surrounded by various types of fruiting trees like bananas (I), coconuts (II), mangoes and jack fruits (III), durians (IV) as well as the pandans (VI) that are tended to daily by the auntie as mentioned back in Chapter One.

A view of the compound from across the main road

To walk you through, the first thing you'll see of the compound would be the trees and plants at point (1) that acts a privacy barrier, semi-concealing the buildings and activities in the compound. The plants and trees in the compound also serves to set a physical boundary between neighboring lands that are owned by different people. There is also a hardware factory (D) next to the compound.

Walking in

Stepping into the compound at point (2), you will see two brick houses (A) owned by the auntie's siblings and a glimpse of the timber house (B).

Outlook of the house

Going further into this private property at point (3), you will finally be able to see the full view of the traditional Malay house that is now slowly going into ruins due to the damage done by serious flooding issues and the rare maintenance of the building. 

The spaces found in the house

Zooming into the house itself, the spaces of a traditional house are generally arrange in a similar manner where the anjung (covered porch) will welcome visitors into the rumah ibu (main house) which is usually connected to the rumah dapur (kitchen) that is access by mostly the women of the house through the terrace from the back.

The house as view from the front

Visitors enter the house through the anjung which is raise above ground level to avoid mild flooding and to keep the house cool. According to the auntie, the house always had a zinc roof which was recently replaced with a newer ones, contrary to our belief that all traditional Malay houses have atap or thatched roof that are usually made from the nipah palm leaves.  

Longitudinal section of the house

As the house is pretty much lived in by only the auntie herself, the rumah ibu functions as her living room as well as bedroom as there are rarely anybody else around. The slits on the wall of the rumah dapur functions as a ventilation path as well as a protector from heavy rainfall.

The next part would be on the activities in the house so keep checking back if you're interested. Ciao!

CHAPTER 3.1: Construction of A Traditional Malay House

We hope you are curious as to how a traditional Malay house would be constructed after the rituals and ceremonies since under this part of the chapter, the customs of constructing one will be essentially mentioned. So read on!




Prefab house parts

Structural parts of the house like posts, beams, trusses and such are usually prefabricated either on site or off site where the raw resources are found.

Careful timber selection

The timber used for constructing the components of the house are given careful consideration in relation to the local climate and availability.



A tree trunk sectioned into different posts 

The tiang seri of the house is usually taken from a hardwood tree as the Malay people regarded it as having spirits of its own, referred to as semangat, which brings about the belief that the semangat rumah resides within the tiang seri. Once there is the tiang seri, the other posts of the house would be constructed from the same hardwood trunk and are positioned as posts exactly in the way it was extracted from the tree.



Colour cloths covering the top of the post

Each post is also topped with a white (purity), red (life and courage) and black (mysterious powers) cloth respectively before jointing with the tie beams of the roof base to ward off evil spirits.

Extension of the buiding

The sequence of construction starts definitely with the rumah ibu (main house) followed by the serambi (veranda), selang and rumah dapur (passageway and kitchen) and anjung (covered porch) depending on the availability of resources as well as the growing size of the family and their family prosperity.

Jointing systems

One of the prominent characteristic of the traditional Malay house would be its jointing system where the use of a combination of simple and complex timber joints establishes a strong connection to hold the house together. These joints are also use to ease the moving of a built house when the need arises by simply detaching one part of the structure from another enabling the house to be moved bit by bit. 

Regarding the customs of house construction, these would be the beliefs that was held onto in the past when one was building a house. However, our case study, a 40-something year old traditional Malay house did not follow exactly the steps of the rituals and customs as the original owner of the house, Auntie Latifah's mother, was not a keen believer of the matter.

Her house would be up for discussion very soon, so come back in a while to read it. Thanks!

CHAPTER 3.0: Traditional Malay House Building Rituals

Welcome back! Under this chapter, what we'll discuss most will be the about the traditional Malay house itself and its surrounding features. This first part will be on the rituals carried out by people of the past according to a Malaysian architecture encyclopedia since the house we actually visited was build under much less traditional beliefs.

A bomoh doing his thing

Before a house is built, a bomoh or shaman, is often asked to carry out a ceremony know as 'searching for the base of the house' with ember burning incense in a burner to bless the site chosen for the house.

The ibu rumah measuring sticks

After blessing the site, the ibu rumah or the mother of the house, measures a piece of rattan and a stick to the length of her outstretched arms which is known as one depa.

Bomoh tying rattan to stick

Once the stick and rattan are measured, the bomoh takes over and ties the rattan to the stick.

More incense burning

The bomoh then continues to burn more incense and recites prayers to carry along the ceremony.

The bomoh continuing the ceremony

Subsequently, the stick that was tied with the rattan piece is then planted on the site with a bucket of water that comes with a bottom dish placed beside it.

Both bomoh and ibu rumah at work

When the bucket of water is placed beside the stick with the rattan, both the bomoh and ibu rumah will start to recite the prayers together.

The ibu rumah checking on the pail of water and stick

Following the next morning before the sun rises, the ibu rumah will untie the rattan from the stick and measure both of it. If either the rattan or stick has lengthen overnight or the bucket of water has overflowed into the bottom dish, the center of the site is decided. If neither happens, the process would repeat until one of the requirement is met.

The tiang seri

When the center is decided, the tiang seri or main post of the house will be put up and the tiang seri is believed to house the semangat rumah or the spirit of the house.

Having gone through the ceremony and deciding on an auspicious site to house the semangat rumah, the construction of the house will shortly follow in which we will cover in the next part of this chapter. Stay tuned!