Roofing in Brunei

Brunei Darussalam is a small sultanate on the north coast of Borneo. Its roofing heritage centres on Kampong Ayer, a centuries-old stilt village over the Brunei River whose houses were roofed with palm leaves and timber, and on the gilded domes of its 20th-century mosques.

Climate and hazards

Brunei is equatorial, hot and humid, with heavy rainfall throughout the year. The coastal and riverine setting adds damp and storm exposure. Fire is a long-standing hazard in timber settlements.

Roofing history

Kampong Ayer, beside the capital Bandar Seri Begawan, is thought to have been settled from around the 8th century and was the main settlement of the Bruneian sultanate by the reign of Sultan Muhammad Shah (1363-1402). The Italian chronicler Antonio Pigafetta, who visited in 1521 with the Magellan expedition, described a town built entirely over salt water, with about 25,000 hearths. The Dutch visitor Olivier van Noort, in 1600-1601, noted that noble houses were light enough to be moved across the river during storms.

Early houses used nibung palm and hardwoods such as bulian, with roofs of palm leaves, bulian wood or nipa (apong) leaves to shed rain. Walls of nipa shoots gave way to timber planks by the early 20th century.

Under the British Residency, residents were encouraged to move onto land, and later public housing schemes offered more uniform houses, so the water village has shrunk: from about 28,000 people in 1981 to 8,902 in 2021.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

Kampong Ayer houses are built on stilts in the style of Malay houses, up to two storeys. Recorded traditional types include:

• rumah belah bumbung - a house with a split (gabled) roof, built by commoners in the 19th century;
• rumah tungkup;
• rumah potong limas - with a cut hipped (limas) roof;
• rumah loteng - an upper-class house with an upper storey;
• rumah berlanggar.

The palm-leaf thatch common to Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore is known as attap (Malay atap, "roof").

Roofing today

Fires in Kampong Ayer remain common, attributed mainly to faulty wiring and the flammability of timber buildings.

Notable roofs

• Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque, Bandar Seri Begawan (built 1954-1958): its main dome, about 52 m (171 ft) high, is covered in a mosaic of more than three million pieces of Venetian glass; it was originally gilded with gold leaf, which flaked as the structure expanded and contracted.
• Kampong Ayer: the stilt village's roofscape over the Brunei River.

Local roofing terms

• atap - roof; palm thatch
• bumbung - roof; belah bumbung - split (gable) roof
• limas - hipped roof
• apong - nipa palm (Brunei Malay)

Sources and gaps

National census data on roof materials, modern materials data, building codes and industry information: published information is limited.