Bahay kubo design: layouts, roofs and walls

A bahay kubo built today is usually one of three things: a small house, a rest house on family land, or a garden kubo, an open shelter in the yard for eating and resting in the shade. The decisions are the same for all three: the plan, how high to lift the floor, what goes on the roof and what goes in the walls. This guide takes them in that order. The images are design concepts, generated to show ideas. They are not built houses or the practice’s work.

For the parts and their names, read the bahay kubo guide. For drawings, read the bahay kubo drawing guide.

Start with the plan

DrawingThe same house grown in steps. Each addition does one job: the batalan takes the water, the porch gives a shaded place to sit at the door, and a partition gives a room that can be closed. Illustrative, not to scale.

The traditional house is one room, and most designs grow from it in steps:

One room. A door, a ladder or a few steps, and windows on three sides. Enough for a garden kubo or a single person.
With a batalan. A slatted platform off one side for washing, with water jars, a sink and its own steps. Today this is where a kitchen sink and a toilet go, which keeps every wet surface out of the main room.
With a porch. A small platform at the door with a rail. It gives you a shaded place to sit at the entrance, and a place to leave shoes.
Two rooms. A wider floor split by a partition with a doorway, so one end can be closed for sleeping while the other stays open.

Keep the room narrow enough that a breeze through a window on one side reaches the window on the other. A deep plan with windows on one wall only stays hot whatever it is made of.

Design concept: a bahay kubo on bamboo posts with woven bamboo walls, a steep thatched roof with deep eaves, and a small front porch behind a waist-high bamboo rail, reached by a bamboo ladder, among banana plants — Design conceptA porch at the door gives a shaded place to sit at the entrance. Generated image: it is not a photograph, a built house, or the practice's work.

How high to lift the floor

The raised floor is the point of the form. It keeps the room above a flood, lets air move under the house and through a slat floor, and leaves the silong underneath as shade. How high depends on the site:

Flood level first. Ask the neighbours and the barangay how high the water has reached, and lift the floor clear of it. The elevated house guide covers this for a permanent house.
What the silong is for. A garden kubo may sit only a few steps up. If you want to sit, store things or park underneath, the floor has to go higher, and the stair grows with it.
The stair. A ladder suits a garden kubo. A house lived in by children or older people needs a proper stair with a handrail, and that takes floor space. The stair dimensions checker works out the rise and run.

The roof

The roof is the biggest single decision, because it decides how cool the room is and how much upkeep it takes.

Roof	What it does well	What to watch
Nipa, cogon or anahaw thatch	Light, quiet in rain, and cool: it does not heat up like metal	Needs re-thatching over time, and it burns. Keep cooking fires and grills away from it
Kalaka (halved bamboo)	Each piece runs the full slope, so rain runs off in channels	Bamboo needs treatment against insects and rot
Metal sheet	Lasts, sheds rain, needs little upkeep	Hot and loud in rain unless insulated underneath. Keep it steep and the space under it vented
Clay or concrete tile	Holds the look of a heavier house	Heavy, so the frame and posts have to be sized for it

Whatever the material, keep the pitch steep and the eaves deep. A shallow roof with short eaves loses most of what makes the form work. Hip roofs, sloping on all four sides, are common; a gable with deep eaves works too. The roof design guide compares them. Deep eaves catch the wind in a typhoon, so the roof has to be tied down to the posts; the bamboo bahay kubo guide covers that, and how long each roof material lasts.

Design concept: the side of a bahay kubo with woven bamboo walls, showing a slatted bamboo batalan platform with two clay water jars, a wooden sink under a tap and a dish rack on the wall, under its own low thatched roof, with bamboo steps down to the yard — Design conceptThe batalan: the wet work kept on its own slatted platform beside the main room. Generated image: it is not a photograph, a built house, or the practice's work.

The walls and windows

Sawali or amakan (woven bamboo). Lets air through, cheap to replace. Not secure, and it lets dust and insects in, so a house usually puts screens or a solid wall behind it on the bedroom side.
Sala-sala (open bamboo lattice). Privacy with a view out. Good for a porch, a garden kubo or the silong.
Timber boards or slats. More durable and more secure, and easier to make tight against rain.
Awning windows on a rod. The traditional choice. Open, they shade the opening and keep light rain out.
Sliding capiz or timber panels. They let light through when closed. Older and larger houses used them.

Design concept: the inside of a bahay kubo, with woven bamboo walls, a slatted floor, a bamboo bench, a rolled sleeping mat and a window propped open onto rice fields, under a thatched roof — Design conceptThe one room inside: the same space for sitting, eating and sleeping, with a mat rolled away by day. Generated image: it is not a photograph, a built house, or the practice's work.

The floor

Bamboo slats with gaps let air rise from the silong and dry quickly, and they are the cool choice. They are hard on furniture legs and let things fall through. Timber boards close the gaps and take furniture better. A slab is the norm in a modern house built on kubo lines, and it changes how the room cools. The modern bahay kubo guide covers that.

Design concept: a larger bahay kubo on timber posts under one long steep thatched hip roof, with woven bamboo walls, windows of small translucent panes in timber frames, and a timber stair with a handrail up to a small porch and door, among mango trees — Design conceptA larger kubo: two rooms under one long roof, entered from a porch at the top of the stair. Generated image: it is not a photograph, a built house, or the practice's work.

A garden or backyard kubo

A garden kubo is the same design at a smaller size: one room or an open platform, a few steps up, under a steep roof. Put it where it catches the breeze and gets shade in the afternoon. Keep a thatched one well clear of the house, the kitchen and any grill. Run power to it only through a proper circuit, never an extension cord stapled to bamboo.

Does it need a building permit? The National Building Code (PD 1096) applies to every building except traditional indigenous family dwellings (Section 103(a)), and Section 301 says no one may build without a permit from the building official. How that applies to a backyard kubo is the building official’s call, so ask before you build. The small bahay kubo guide goes through that and the other questions to settle first: size, where on the lot, who builds it and typhoons. The building permit requirements guide lists what the office asks for.

Design concept: an open garden kubo on a backyard lawn, a bamboo platform two steps up with bamboo rails, a table and benches, under a steep thatched roof on bamboo posts, with a two-storey concrete house behind — Design conceptA garden kubo: an open platform a few steps up, for eating and resting in the shade. Generated image: it is not a photograph, a built house, or the practice's work.

A bahay kubo in current materials

Design concept: a single-storey house raised on concrete posts, with a steep hip roof, deep eaves and walls of vertical timber slats and woven bamboo panels, beside banana plants and rice fields — Design conceptThe same design moves carried into current materials, which the modern bahay kubo guide covers in full. Generated image: it is not a photograph, a built house, or the practice's work.

The same moves work in concrete, steel and timber: a floor lifted on posts, a steep roof with deep eaves, and walls that let air through. The modern bahay kubo guide shows how. Our custom house design service designs bahay kubo-style houses and rest houses for a particular lot, with the drawings the permit needs.

Bahay kubo design: layouts, roofs, walls and how high to lift it