Fun with Maps, Place Names and Old Photos!
Tracing urban morphological changes and features through maps, toponyms, photographs and diagrams.
(1) Morphological developments
For example:
(2) Place names (toponyms) / Street names
For example:
(3) ‘Kampung’ → ‘Campong’ → ‘Compound’: Retracing the forgotten connections.
Not many people realise the term ‘compound house’ is derived from the Malay word ‘kampung’. Click here to find out more about the etymology of the term.
(4) Architectural Typology
There are three basic forms of the Malay-type house found in Singapore and the Straits region: (1) Traditional or adat houses: Rumah Serambi (2) The modern vernacular house: Rumah Limas (3) The “Compound House”, the two-storey version of the Rumah Limas, where the upper floor is the house proper which guests enter directly from the front entrance, while the ground floor or kolong is meant for additional rooms and spaces. Here are examples from various locations in Singapore.
- The first example of a Compound House, typologically a two-storey Malay house, is from Kampung Bedok at Jalan Haji Salam, the main residence for an extended family or Rumah Besar of Haji Kahar Palembang, a wealthy businessman and landowner. Notice that the front entrance stairs led directly from the ground to the upper floor’s front sitting room, the anjung – like a raised floor (panggung) Malay house, it is the upper, “raised floor” of the two-storey Compound House that holds the house proper, while the ground floor or kolong contains subsidiary spaces and ancillary rooms (click on image to read more about this particular residence):
- More examples coming soon!
(4) There is yet another form – the Chinese version of the kampung house.
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