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!