Page 378 - Proceedings Collega2023

ii) Spatial Structure
Haya’ kemal Batek people can generally be divided into several rooms, namely the porch/guest
room, the main/family room, the bedroom and the kitchen. The spaces found in this residential house
have their functions. Generally, the porch room is located at the front of the house, its position is also
located at the front of the main room. The width of this space is between six and eight feet. This space
serves as a place to welcome and entertain guests who visit their homes. The condition of the porch space
is left open to provide comfort to the guests who come. Sometimes the porch is also used as a resting
place for male family members.

The family room or main room is located in the middle of the house. Usually, this room is built
bigger than other rooms. The space was built in such a way as to accommodate the many social activities
that take place in this space. The main room serves as a resting place for the household, a place to
perform a charity or medical ceremony, a place for discussion between family members, a place for some
family members to sleep and sometimes a place to eat. The main room is also clean, the children who
want to go up to the house are ensured that their feet are clean from excrement.

Haya’ Batek people also have a kitchen room located in a back corner or one of the rooms in the
house. In the kitchen, they keep tools for cooking, tools used for economic activities as well as tools used
for hunting and fishing. Their rationale for keeping tools in the kitchen is to ensure that tools are more
durable, especially tools made of wood. The smoke that always comes out prevents the tools from being
eaten by insects. The kitchen also functions as a place to cook and prepare food just like the outside
community.

The bedroom is one of the important spaces in the construction of the Batek people's eternal life.
The bedroom is located on the side or one of the corners of the house. The use of the bedroom is only
limited to parents and small children to sleep at night only. The older daughter will sleep in a separate
room. If there is only one room, the older daughter will also sleep with the parents to ensure safety. There
are also houses of group members who do not build bedrooms, but they still designate one of the rooms
as a bed. This space is not recommended for the use of other activities. (e) The bonfire is in the middle of
a certain corner whose function is the same as a temporary house, which is as a kitchen for cooking in
addition to serving as a mosquito repellent and warming the body in cold weather.

iii) Building materials
Traditional house-building materials generally consist of materials obtained from the surrounding forest
area. The same goes for the Batek tribe. The architecture of their homes uses a lot of materials found
around the settlement. Among the materials commonly used to build this traditional house are bamboo,
round wood, Bertam leaves, Cucuh leaves, Salak leaves and rattan.

iv) House Size

The Batek people say that the length of the house that was built is only three sails of the cucuh
roof or bertam. The length of each roof sail is estimated to be seven feet. This means the length of the

International Conference on Local Wisdom of the Malay Archipelago (COLLEGA 2023) Page - 365 -