• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.25-36
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to understand and explain the traditional housing-culture in South East Asia, focused on the traditional Malay houses. The research objectives are : 1) to obtain informations related to the traditional Malay houses in West Malaysia. 2) to survey the traditional Malay houses in the selected area. 3) to understand their characteristics. It is expected that the traditional Malay houses were a major focal point of traditional Malay village society. The Malay houses provided the basic needs of shelter to the villagers. They were designed and built by villagers themselves, thus, manifestation of the creative and aesthetic skills of the community. Further, these houses reflect those factors including climate, geographical features, history of the region.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.129-140
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• 2010

Malaysian traditional houses are basically post-and-beam structures raised on pillars, with gabled roofs. They were designed and built by the people themselves to meet specific needs, accommodating the values, economies and ways of life of cultures that produce them. The main purpose of this study is to understand the form and culture of Traditional houses in Malaysia through two parts. The first part is to summarize the general characteristic of traditional houses of Malaysia in the aspect of two different perspectives. One is the climate perspective, for which the analysis was made on the primary characteristics such as the climate, material, structure of the vernacular houses. The other one is the social-cultural perspective which try to find the religion, belief, life style and social and family relationship which controlled the forms of the housing under the surface. As a result, this study summarise and find the outstanding and unique meaning and definition of the traditional houses in Malaysia. The second part is to survey the specific case of the traditional house. Rumah Penghulu which were located in Kuala Lumpur were analyzed. As a result, this study summarise and find the formal and symbolic features of the traditional Malay houses. We hope that this study addresses the blank area in Korean housing studies about Southeast Asia countries which have not been clearly introduced yet.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.109-119
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• 2010

Modernization of cities and housing in Malaysia is a reflection of the history of the establishment of colonial trading ports for worldwide maritime trade and exchange. In cosmopolitan cities, new housing typology appeared from the influence of various ethnic immigrants and with the fusion of traditional Malay housing characteristics. This study is to focus on classifying the housing typologies of Malaysia which were formed through the modernization process of cities. The typologies of modern housing in Malaysia can be classified into two categories. The first category is the 'transformation of traditional housing'. The representative typology of this group is the ubiquitous shophouse. The shophouse was originally brought in by the Chinese immigrants from the south coast of China and transformed into the Malaysian urbanscape. The other typology is a detached-house known as the bungalo, which was the housing style combining the Malay traditional timber house and European palazzo. The second category is the 'modern urban housing typology'. Modern urbanization after the independence from the British in 1957 required the maximum utilization of land. To accommodate new social and economic needs, the new typologies were developed in the form of medium-density terrace houses (row houses) and high-density apartment. In the suburban areas, the British terrace house was adopted and developed into unique Malaysian terrace house and semi-detached house based on the British system of land sub division. In premium area of the city, luxurious housing type in the form of high-end condominium is one of the popular housing for upper middle-class and high-class society.