Re-reading Malay Vernacular: Climate-Responsive Principles in Rumah Panggung for Contemporary Housing

Abstract

This paper re-reads Malay vernacular architecture to extract climate-responsive principles from the Rumah Panggung (stilt house) and translate them into actionable guidelines for contemporary housing in humid-tropical contexts. Combining typological analysis with field documentation in Binjai, North Sumatra, the study revisits key spatial, material, and construction logics elevated floors with ventilated undercroft, deep eaves and high-pitched roofs, porous wall assemblies, shaded verandas, and lightweight, reconfigurable partitions. Situated within Binjai’s hot-humid conditions and recurrent pluvial and fluvial flood risks, the case study examines representative neighborhoods and conducts performance-oriented reasoning informed by passive design theory (cross-ventilation paths, stack-effect cooling, solar control, and moisture management). The findings show how the Rumah Panggung’s coupled strategies raising habitable floors, creating thermal buffer zones, and grading façade permeability enhance thermal comfort and hydrological resilience while supporting incremental growth and easy repair. These logics are then reformulated as design rules compatible with current construction practice in Binjai: orientation and massing for prevailing breezes, vented high roofs, modular shaded outdoor rooms, raised structures and flood-tolerant ground layers, and hybrid material systems pairing locally available components with durable contemporary products. Scenario prototyping demonstrates the potential to reduce reliance on mechanical cooling and to improve comfort hours across typical dwelling layouts. By reframing the Rumah Panggung as climate intelligence rather than style, and grounding the argument in Binjai’s urban and environmental realities, the study advances a pragmatic path for affordable, sustainable, and culturally resonant housing delivery today.