Kampong Ayer Houses

Kampong Ayer is one of the most iconic hallmarks of the country, always a feature brought up in relation to Brunei and rightfully so. It was known to be the bustling heart of the city in the past that has long existed for many centuries. Kampong Ayer or the Water Village is a cluster of houses on stilts over the Brunei river with wood as its main foundation and material. Its main communication means were through boats and canoes. Settlements in this form are commonly found in the islands of Southeast Asia or the Malay Archipelago especially in the pre-19th century, and the Brunei sultanate included.

There were various accounts, especially European narrations, of how Kampong Ayer used to look and function in its bygone period. Most notably was by Antonio Pigafetta in 1521 during his visit to Kota Batu, who described the water village to have 25,000 people and their houses built in salt water from the ground on tall pillars. In the Sketches of Borneo by Capt the Hon Vereker RN from the Illustrated London News in 1881, Kampong Ayer was likened to Venice, where the houses are all made of bamboo and rattan with palm-leaves as their roofs known as ‘attaps’.

Although the indication of when the Brunei Malays started building their houses remains ambiguous, based on historical claims, the architectural designs of Malay Brunei society started from Kampong Ayer itself. Generally, the main body of traditional houses were raised upon sturdy and durable pillars made from nibung, kulimpapan and bulian wood. These materials were appropriate for the environment and climate these houses were exposed to and were derived from the village vicinity. The overall designs of Kampong Ayer houses were simple and suitable with its nature being in salt water.

Floors were usually made from nibung or bamboo laid out with a lampit or mengkuang mat while the roofs were horizontally arranged and tilted downwards to allow raindrops to trickle down easily and protect the main house. Aside from palm leaves, these roofs could be found made of bulian wood or apung leaves. There were various designs of traditional houses in Kampong Ayer, and the most prevalent in the earlier times were rumah belah bumbung and rumah tungkup. Each traditional design of the houses in Kampong Ayer could reflect its occupants’ status in society.

A design called rumah belah bumbung, usually found in the 19th century, was a house with an inverted ‘V’ Shaped roof. Its walls were of apong shoots known as kajang and floors from parted nibung. This design was easy to construct and thus believed to be the first Brunei Malay design built for commoners. Around the early 20th century, the walls of this house had been replaced with boards instead while the overall structure and design of rumah belah bumbung remains as they were even in the 1940s.

Tungkup means cover and as the name rumah tungkup suggests, the roof was designed to cover the whole four sided main house or also known as indung rumah. The roof had four downward slopes corresponding to the four walls of the main house. At its apex, a small, short and flat roof was installed. This type of house was housed by notable families, usually the Pengirans or Pehins.

Another house design in Kampong Ayer that was found in the past was the rumah loteng. The name was obtained from the Chinese language Lau Teng which means upstairs room or attic. Its structure and materials were similar to rumah tungkup including the pillars, however rumah loteng was unique for its two storey formation with a staircase on the inside to access the upper level. Its walls were boarded and its roof made from bulian. The attic was usually used as a room for women to weave traditional clothes, to make handicrafts and at times used as a storage room for daily appliances. Its main residents were also of higher status of society similar to rumah tungkup.

Due to the growing economy and social status in Brunei as a result of the discovery of oil, it has led to the building of traditional houses such as rumah potong limas and rumah berlanggar. Materials for these types of houses are more modern as accessibility to wood from wood factories was becoming within reach. Rumah potong limas is considered as a modern amalgamation of rumah belah bumbung and rumah tungkup elements especially the roof for the latter. The word limas refers to pyramids in Malay which was found on the roof summit of this house and the house design became famous around the early 1940s. Processed walls from local factories were used as its walls, though bulian was still used as stilts.

As for rumah berlanggar, it refers to the collision of rooms and began to crop up around the 1950s. Its design is not far off from rumah belah bumbung, but with an additional space ‘collided’ in the middle or on the side of the main house for a living room, creating an L shaped structure. A religious characteristic was infused in this design as the two rooms were often used to separate men and women during religious activities aside it being a family room.

Kampong Ayer experienced and witnessed evolutions of its housing settlements perpetuated by the progression of time in tandem with economical, political and social developments of the country, and can be traced to Brunei’s interaction with the West. Bubungan Dua Belas is an example of houses infused with Brunei Malay designs and Western influence. Other factors include the migration to onland which occurred during the Residency period in Brunei.

The relocation of Kampong Ayer residents was proposed by Malcolm McArthur under the purpose of also having a ‘clean and dry village’ while retaining the homes in the water. The development of the land-based central city by the British Resident did encourage a migration of people from the Brunei river. As time etched away, materials used for houses in Kampong Ayer kept changing as well together with some of its traditional purpose. Roofs were no longer made of leaves but of zinc and walls were all of kayu papan or wood boards.

Today, Kampong Ayer has many villages within it, including its own headman and their own specialty such as fishing, smithing or carpentry. Brunei’s bandar or city is both on land and the water, reflecting tradition and modernity merging together. Despite the housing designs having changed, there are some traditional elements that still exist and fuse with modern housing designs translated not only in Kampong Ayer, but as well as in houses on land. Changes are bound to happen but retaining the concept of a water village for Brunei is essential as it is part of our country’s identity, a threshold between progress and history.