Baitul Rahmah: a final evolution of the Malay classical style amidst change

• Main Authors: Abdul Majid, Noor Hanita, Jahn Kassim, Puteri Shireen, Raja Abdul Kadir, Tengku Anis Qarihah, Sapian, Abdul Razak, Samsuddin, Abu Dzar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universitas Indraprasta PGRI 2020
• Subjects: NA Architecture; Ancient architecture; Modern architeture; NK Decorative arts Applied arts Decoration and ornament
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/83238/1/83238_Baitul%20Rahmah.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/83238/; https://journal.unindra.ac.id/index.php/cusy/article/view/347; https://doi.org/10.30998/cs.v2i1.347
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

The paper highlights the significance and position of the Baitul Rahmah, an early 20th-century mansion in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia, as a key milestone of stylistic evolvement of local vernacular architecture. Its form embodies, a typological variation at a time of growing Colonial imperialism, while its grammar and language refers to early modern stylistic expression reflecting the fundamental principles of indigenous architecture. The Baitul Rahmah brings to light how a final evolution and epitome of the vernacular projects an identity as a cosmopolitan manifestation. Its internal ornamentation recalls the stylized forms of local motifs and reflect a form of control and minimalism; i.e. an ‘ornamental decorum’. Its wood-carved expressions seem stylised into increasing ‘modernised’ simplication and modularity, while its masonry- timber structure reflect the identity of hybridity in architecture which symbolise the tensions of local communities as they step into the 1900s into a global context.