‘Austronesian’ saddle roof which has curved lines and pointed eaves are some of many roofs that are not everywhere achieved. The Toba Batak and Minangkabau roof are the two Sumatran peoples who provide well-known examples of the saddle roof. Yet, interestingly the structure and proportions of their houses are different.
Minangkabau Roof
The Toba Batak and Minangkabau roof may be the same but the rest of the buildings are different. The walls may be in different heights as the locals differ in taste and wealth. The roof sits on top of the habitable space rather than creating it. For the roof and the rood peaks, a truss and cross-beam is used and it is built up of many small rafters and battens. In the biggest houses, the ends (anjung) projects up from the main body of the house in tiers. The roofing thatch of ijuk(sugar palm fibre) is tied into bundles which can easily made to fit the curves of the roof peaks.
Later on, the Minangkabau migrants settle from Indonesia to Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. There they have adopted a Malay roof style. The resulted roof having much less curve than the original form and blunter ends on the eaves.
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