26/08/2026
A university has just published research arguing that how long a building stays unusable after a flood should count towards its carbon footprint.
The rumah kampung answered that four hundred years ago.
Think about what the traditional Malay house does. It stands on stilts, so the floodwater passes beneath it rather than through it. The open space underneath ventilates and cools the floor above without any power at all. The steep roof and deep eaves shed monsoon rain and shade the walls. The timber is porous, the windows high, and the whole house light enough for a family to repair themselves.
That is not a primitive building. That is a calibrated one.
Now think about what we replaced it with. Concrete boxes sitting at ground level, sealed shut, directly in the path of the water, then air-conditioned back to comfort. When the flood comes, the house is gutted, dried and refitted. Again and again. None of that carbon is counted anywhere.
We treat the vernacular as heritage, something to photograph and preserve. It was never heritage. It was climate engineering, worked out over centuries by people who could not afford to get it wrong.
The materials have changed and they are not coming back. The principles have not moved. Lift the building. Ventilate beneath it. Shade the walls. Let it dry. Keep it repairable.
The question was never whether we can go back to the kampung house. It is why we stopped listening to it.
What lesson from the old houses do you think we gave up too quickly?
Illustration, AI-generated.
![Salam Maulidur Rasul from all of us at [SA]².The first mosque in Madinah was built from palm trunks, mud and palm leaves...](https://img3.schoolandcollegelistings.com/098/271/1607020360982716.jpg)
