Non-Structural Elements of the Traditional Malay Houses in the East Coast and Northern Peninsular Malaysia: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the literature review on the non-structural elements of the traditional Malay houses in the East Coast and Northern Peninsular Malaysia. The main aim of the review is to seek for similarities and differences between the unique features of the elements in traditional house of Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Perlis and Penang, which most of the houses have been largely influenced by the architectural styles of Siam and Cambodia. For this purpose, a series of reviews have been done on relevant written documents like journal and proceeding articles, books, thesis, research reports and monographs, as well as documented measured drawings. The results showed that although the features of the non-structural elements in most of the houses are quite identical, but there are some aesthetical elements on the wall, door, window and roof of the houses are found to be significantly different, especially the elements like ‘gerbang pintu’, ‘kepala pintu & kepala tingkap’, types of wall, ‘tunjuk langit’, ‘sulur bayung’ and ‘kayu pemeleh’.