Rumah Melayu is Malaysia’s contribution to epistemology of architecture

The rumah Melayu is the conscious and subconscious construction of the Malay worldview — the epitome of an architectural genius. Quite literally like the pantun, it is both medium and message. It is a capsule of the Malay Weltanschauung (view of life), encompassing philosophy, thought, reasoning, aesthetics and expression. It is the literary beyond words, both indigenous and vernacular, configured by the archipelago, rantau and tanah air.

Celebrated in a 2014 book by Riau cultural historian Tenas Effendy, and titled Rumah: An Ode to the Malay House, emphasised the wisdom of the icon to us moderns in more ways imaginable. In his foreword to Rumah, Datuk Mohammad Nor Khalid (Lat) recalled his childhood days back in the 1950s when they were fond of drawing and making sketches of kampung houses during art class. Now many have left their “rumah” integrated into the zeitgeist of cubism and the Bauhaus, leaving their cultural icon. And that is rapidly disappearing.

Popular culture evokes the Malay house — P. Ramlee’s films in the 1950s and 1960s depicted the Malay landscape, and the modern Malay television dramas. And definitely, Lat’s Kampung Boy.

Many today are not fully conversant with the ethos and values of the rumah Melayu. The poem by Tenas Effendy articulates the significance of the cultural icon:

Yang bertiang dan bertangga (That which has pillars and stairs),

Beratap penampang hujan penyanga panas (With roofs to hinder the rain, And deflect the heat),

Berdinding penghambat angin dan tempias (With walls to thwart the winds and sprays),

Berselasar dan berpelantar (With verandahs and raised open platforms),

Beruang besar berbilik dalam (With generous spaces and inner chambers),

Berpenanggah dan bertepian (With sculleries and bathing spaces).

Appropriate for the humid equatorial climate, with raised floors and floorboards placed slightly apart to let the ventilation through, the rumah Melayu is a marvel in the organisation of space.

The serambi (front terrace) — rarely articulated these days in our daily speech, serves as the transitional interstitial zone between the inside and the outside — a crucial interactive space between the dwellers, the village community and their immediate environment.

The preface by architect Ken Yeang describes the rumah Melayu as having such features as a steep pitched roof for the rapid removal of torrential rain, a floor raised above ground with floor boards placed slightly apart to let the ventilation through, and the multi-layered fenestration (comprising an inner layer of curtains for privacy, the balustrade layer for safety and the outer operable louvred windows).

Tenas captures both the tangible and the intangible, the silent and the spiritual, as in Rumah ada adatnya, Selilup Bendul Tepi, Selingkup Bendul Tengah (Houses possess their own customs, Enfolding the Bendul Tepi, Draping the Bentul Tengah). The complexities in the meanings symbolically capture the crafting of the nation, a communal web of mutual obligations.

The rumah Melayu is not a Malay “project”, but a national and a regional one. It is Malaysia’s contribution to the worldview and epistemology of architecture. A national consciousness must be present at all levels. It should be evoked in the nation’s public policy on architecture, regulated through the heritage legislation. This is not just aesthetics.

The writer is a professor with the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia