# Ifugao House (Bale)

> The bale, the traditional raised one-room house of the Ifugao of northern Luzon, Philippines, with a steep pyramidal thatched roof and rat-guarded posts.

- URL: https://roof.wiki/ifugao-house/
- Topic: Roofing Around the World
- Also known as: bale; Ifugao bale; Ifugao native house
- Regions: Southeast Asia
- First published: 2026-11-02 · Last reviewed: 2026-11-02
- Cite as: "Ifugao House (Bale)." roof.wiki. https://roof.wiki/ifugao-house/

## Key facts

- **People:** Ifugao, Cordillera, northern Luzon
- **Roof:** Steep pyramidal thatch with smoke outlet at top
- **Posts:** Almost 2 m (6.5 ft) high, with rat-guard ledges
- **Floor area:** About 5-8 m2 (54-86 sq ft)

The Ifugao house, called *bale*, is the traditional dwelling of the Ifugao people of the Cordillera mountains in northern Luzon, Philippines. It is a compact one-room house raised high on posts beneath a steep, pyramid-shaped thatched roof, and it is closely associated with the Ifugao rice terraces, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

## Form and structure

The house stands on posts almost 2 m (about 6.5 ft) high. Near the top of each post is a heavily thickened ledge that stops rats climbing into the house and its stored rice. The living floor is small, usually 5-8 m2 (about 54-86 sq ft), and the walls lean slightly inward toward the top. Front and back doors are the only openings.

## The roof

The roof is thatched and rises to a point, giving the house its pyramidal silhouette. Because the hearth sits inside, in the right rear corner as seen from the front door, a smoke outlet at the top of the roof vents the fire. The tall, steep thatch sheds the heavy rain of the mountains and dominates the whole building, wrapping down over the small living room.

Ethnographic sources from the early 20th century record that the bale had the same shape and construction throughout the Ifugao area, which made it one of the most standardised house types in the Philippines.

## House, granary and landscape

The Ifugao distinguish the *bale* (house) from the *abong* (hut). Rice granaries, *alang*, follow a related raised, thatched form. In the Mayoyao cluster of the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras, the terraces are interspersed with these farmhouses and granaries, and the Bangaan and Batad clusters frame traditional villages. According to UNESCO, the terracing technique is about 2,000 years old.

## Change

The UNESCO site was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2001 and removed from it in 2012. Migration away from farming, climate change and social change all strain the system of terraces and villages. Elsewhere in the Philippines, traditional thatch has largely given way to metal sheet; in the 2020 census, only 4.7% of occupied housing units nationally were roofed with cogon, nipa or anahaw.

## Local terms

- *bale* - house
- *abong* - hut
- *alang* - granary

## Sources

1. House model (Balbale) — Philippine Studies at SOAS (Mapping Philippine Material Culture). https://philippinestudies.uk/mapping/items/show/14911
2. Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras — UNESCO World Heritage Centre. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/722/
3. Housing units in PH reach 28.5 million in 2020 (PSA census results) — Real Estate News PH. https://realestatenews.ph/national/housing-units-in-ph-reach-285-million-in-2020