Malay Traditional Roof Design

The traditional malay house is a timber house raised on stilts.

Malay traditional roof design.

Under the gable roof located a hidden space known the loteng or loft. The house uses gable roof type. The ridge board is long straight and mounted horizontally elongated. Generally the house is same in function but different in design.

The basic design of a roof on a malay house is gabled roof an extended frame with ornaments on the edges of the roof. Melaka houses are categorized in the long roof design. Most of them offer the near perfect solutions to accommodating malaysia s tropical climate but they incorporate flexibility in the design and use of space. In the tradition of vernacular houses the malay house is not professionally designed but has evolved over a period of time using readily available local materials which suited the local climatic and environmental conditions.

It is a make of timber wood and rose on stilts. The vernacular malay roof is best suited for hot and humid tropical climates. Basic design of the malay house is the stilts on which it stands its open plan and its pitched roof. Malay house form is shown on the roof part.

Touched and designed by the creative and skilled of the malays. The roof of traditional malay houses are designed to provide shade and protection from heat and rain as well as to provide ventilation. 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. It has a post structure with wooden or bamboo walls and thatched roof.

Malay house styles particularly the design of the roof vary from state to state in peninsular malaysia but the basic house form and construction methods are similar. Three vertical part of melaka house.