Rural Khmer house

The basic structure consists of a wooden frame, and the roof is erected before the walls on the upper floor are inserted.

They are called Phteah Rông Doeung, which may be derived from thbal kdoeung, meaning that a rice mill was stored at the back of the house under a second awning.

[1] A common feature in every type of house is a 5–10 cm gap, on all four sides, between the top of the wall of the upper floor and the roof.

The simplest houses consist of only one room on the upper floor, partitioned off to provide a storage place for rice, a bedroom for the parents, and a further space for unmarried daughters.

The parents’ sleeping space is situated either to the left or the right of the central entrance; textiles are often hung to separate this area from the rest of the room.

Despite indoor and outdoor temperatures of 36 °C (97 °F) and up to 80% relative humidity the old rural Khmer houses are very comfortable, both at ground level and on the upper floor.

The structure consists of evenly spaced wooden pilings that extend from the ground to the eaves or the roof ridge historically called ridge-post framing.

No provision is made at ground level for any form of wall cladding or protection against wind and rain; by day this area provides shade and serves as a living space for the inhabitants and their livestock.

The upper floor, which is closed on all four sides, provides sleeping accommodation during the night; clothes, furniture and objects of value are stored here.

Such variations can often be seen in the partitioning of the upper floor: the division between the parents’ room, or the area set aside for the children, may be extended to include a large veranda, thus providing a separation from the private part of the house.

As well as providing a living and working area, the building serves as a shelter, which is of vital importance in the everyday life of a home in a rural setting that is exposed to the elements.

A separate room beside the main living space, which is often a step lower than the upper floor, is reserved for cooking.

Typically, the kitchen is situated at the back of the house, often some steps lower and attached to the main building; it is not uncommon for there to be two entrances to this room, one from the upper floor and one directly from the ground level.

Panels of homemade palm matting cover the sides of the house; fixed to the wooden structure in a simple fashion they merely provide protection against the elements but have no influence on the stability of the construction.

Typical characteristics of such a settlement are: The private sphere of each household is restricted to the area occupied by their dwelling; Delimited by the stilt structure of the house, it is at ground level that daily life – work, eating and family interaction – takes place.

These typical wooden buildings surround an open space (approximately 150 m2), where there is a communal source of water, which forms the centre of the settlement.

However, the walled construction of the ground level means that the load no longer has to be conveyed to the individual points of the supporting structure, but can now be distributed at random.

Different styles of tables are found both upstairs and downstairs – always within the area of the house itself; on the ground level it is a vital element of daily life.

In more urban surroundings, people may have a simple type of sideboard on which they place items of importance: a television, a Buddha shrine, a battery operated light, mobile phones, as well as photographs of their grandparents and members of the family who have died.

Because of the spatial organisation of the basic Khmer house, furniture is placed alongside the walls within the personal space of the inhabitants.

Nowadays the plot of a rural Khmer house is situated between the main street, to the front, and the rice fields at the back.

In a busy thoroughfare, there is often a small shop, which consists of a simple wooden shelter beside the street, where all kinds of goods are sold.

With increasing urbanisation, this channel serves to drain excess water from the ground when seasonal rainfall causes flooding.

The bare ground in front of the house serves as the main working area for any major task requiring plenty of space: rice is spread here to dry (sometimes it is even spread on the warm asphalt of the road); rice threshing takes place here, and milling, as well as all kinds of repair work.

In more densely populated villages, which lack direct access to the rice fields and are cut off from main roads, dwellings remain independent from each other, separated by a garden with banana trees, coconut palms and a vegetable plot.

To comply with the specific conditions of the generally loamy soils, single foundations are laid in the following manner: At the bottom of a 1 metre deep excavation several wooden poles of 1.5 – 2.00 metres length are rammed into the ground and then covered with a layer of compacted stone, followed by a hewn stone or prefabricated concrete slab, which provides the base for the pile.

In a modern version the single foundations are linked with concrete slabs and prefabricated pillars extending to the upper floor are used.

In traditional houses transverse and longitudinal rigidity is achieved by passing the horizontal joists through the piles, in close proximity, one above the other.

Houses of simple farmers generally have walls made of palm leaf matting, the preparation of which is labour-intensive but does not rely on imported materials.

Infrared thermal imaging reveals that the lowest temperatures are found at ground level beneath the house.