CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Filipino Housing Typology

(A Subjective Architectural Expression of Opinion through Writing and Visualization Methods)

The Maranao
Torogan

RAMOS, CAMILLE
AHOUSING-ARC151
AR. PAOLO MANALANSAN
 Endeavor
The Author ought to preserve and interpret facts of her
chosen housing typology which is the Maranao Torogan. It is an
ornately decorated ancestral residence of the datu or the Maranao elite
and his extended family which has features that signify royalty and
prestige. The researcher gathered the facts and attempted to assimilate
and verify the facts about the Maranao Torogan into a meaningful order.
The researcher gathered data thru internet and books such as:
Diksyunaryong Biswal ng Arkitekturang Filipino by Rino D.A.
Fernandez, Arkitekturang Filipino by Gerard Lico and The Maranaw
Torogan by Abdullah T. Madale. Through her research phase, the
researcher found out that many of such torogans are said to have
succumbed to decay and wear. But due to the structure's outstanding
historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value, the Torogan was
declared by National Museum as the last standing example of the finest
of traditional vernacular architecture of the Philippines and as one of the
national cultural treasure of the Philippines. Through this, the
researcher thought of a house design that will harmoniously mix
modern style with the traditional Torogan style.
 Maranao torogan is an imposing stately house of the
Maranao elite which literally means, “a place for
sleeping,” found in the province of Lanao del Sur in
Mindanao, Philippines. It is an ornately decorated ancestral
residence of the datu or chief and his extended family
which has features that signify royalty and prestige. Each
torogan is occupied by at least two families sometimes and
as many as ten. Three – four would be the normal number
of families.

General Description
 Torogan is considered to be pre-Islamic, noting that its
features have influences that trace back to India. Its
prominent feature is the unique floor end beams, known
as panolongs, which have butterfly-shaped projections
and are carved alternately with the traditional Maranao
symbols of niaga or naga (serpent or dragon) and pako
rabong armalis (asymmetrical growing fern).

General Description
 This style of great-house has a single large hall with no
permanent partitions and is divided only into sleeping
areas under a widely flaring, ridged roof. It also includes
the gibon or paga known as the room of the datu's
daughter; the bilik, a hiding place at the back of the
sultan’s headboard; the Lamin, a lady’s dormitory which
serve as another hideaway for the datu’s daughter and
her manga raga or ladies.

General Description
 The has declared the Maranao
torogan, specifically the Kawayan torogan as National
Cultural Treasure through Museum Declaration No. 4-
2008, announces Museum Director Corazon S. Alvina.
(Alba, R.A., 2008 July 22) The Declaration upholds that
the Maranao torogan is the “last standing example of
the finest of traditional vernacular architecture of the
Philippines.”

General Description
 Place of Origin

Lanao Region of
Mindanao
Architectural Plans
ISOMETRIC VIEW
ROOF AND FLOOR PLAN

ROOF PLAN FLOOR PLAN

ELEVATIONS
SECTION PLAN
 Prominent building
materials:
✓ The structure is made up of all-wood materials
✓ The widely flaring ridged, bonnet type roof is made of bamboo and cogon grass
✓ Posts are made from Bunga Tree ; Torogan has more posts than of the mala-a-walai
which is one of the three types of maranao houses, numbering to as many as twenty-
five, some of which are non-loadbearing.
✓ The posts on the frontage are usually carved and decorated with okir motifs and may
occasionally assume a chesspiece-like contour.
✓ Floorings are made from Barimbingan wood
✓ Walls are made from Gisuk wood
✓ Rounded boulders where post stands prevent direct contact of the post with the
ground, thus inhibiting termite attack and wood decay.
✓ The most noticeable feature of the torogan is the panolong, which are ends of the
floor beams that project and splay out like triangular butterfly wings that are ornately
carved and painted, alternately into the niaga/naga (serpent/dragon) and pako rabong
armalis (assymetrical growing fern). It gives the torogan the appearance of floating like
a royal vessel.
Panolong
 Prominent building
materials:
✓ Indian influence on Maranao culture can be depicted in a naga (dragon) or S
carvings. Naga is a group of mythical serpent deities in Hindu and Buddhist
mythology. It is said to be originated from Hindu-Malay culture which symbolizes
bravery, wealth and power. Some Maranao old folks believed that naga carvings on
panolong brings protection to the household from evil spirits, this belief however
is pre-Islamic.
✓ The side strips, façade panels, and window frames of the torogan are lavished in
the same fashion.
✓ There were also brightly colored weaves or malongs hanging from the rafters, it
was hung up using ropes around a particular territory for privacy
✓ Cloth that hangs from the rafters were used as ceiling which also absorbs heat from
roof.
✓ Roof, walls, flooring, doors and windows are made of bamboo material lashed
together with rattan..
 Structural building
methods:
✓ Center post or tapuwilih is put first followed by the four big tukud
(corner posts).
✓ Since the land is tectonically volatile, timber posts are not buried
into the ground; rather they stand on rounded boulders. These
rounded boulders act as rollers that allow the structure to sway
with earthquake movements (thus preventing the possibility of the
structure to collapse).
✓ Huge posts made from tree trunks signify power. Plain and massive
or may be carved to look like clay pots or huge chess pieces.
✓ Center beam or tinai a walai or “intestine of the house” holds up
the king or “Pulaos Bungan” of the high-ridged roof.

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✓ The technique of stretching the pillars angled by joining them together
proves that the architecture of the Maranao gives emphasis to the
building's durability and strength.
 Structural building
methods:
✓The distinct high gable roof of the torogan, thin at the apex and gracefully
flaring out to the eaves, sits on a huge structures enclosed by slabs of
timber and lifted more than two meters above the ground by a huge trunk
of a tree that was set on a rock.
✓Windows are narrow horizontal slits from 2 m. long and about 15 cm.
wide between the panalongs.
✓Has a soaring, salakot-shaped or ceremonial umbrella design roof, ornate
beams and massive posts, to identify status of its occupants.
✓Floor beams are supported by around 25 thk posts or trunks not buried
into the ground but are freely standing on large stones to allow the house
flexibility to sway with earthquake tremor.
✓Appearance of floating like a royal vessel.

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✓Sculptured to look like the prow of a boat.
 Spacial Usage and
Translation
• The interior of the house is a cavernous hall entrance (front) and exit (back) near the
with no permanent wall partitions. kitchen.
• The windows of torogan are slits and richly• Lamin – lady’s dormitory which serve as
framed in wood panels with okir designs another hideaway for the datu’s daughter and
located in front of the house. her manga raga or ladies.
• The communal kitchen is half a meter lower • Used only when there are important
than the main house is both used for cooking gatherings in the torogan.
and eating. • Way of announcing the presence of a
royal lady in the community and serves
• Raised on pilings from .31 to 2.21meters to preserve and protect the girl’s
above the ground modesty, virtue, virginity and chastity.
• Windows are narrow horizontal slits from 2 m. • Constructed atop the torogan.
long and about 15 cm. wide between the• Entrance is located near the datu’s bed.
panalongs.
• Dorung is the multi-purpose ground space
• The main room (without partitions) measures created under the wooden beams. The main
about 7.86 to 18.9 meters. house on the second floor is called the “poro”. It
is an open space partitioned only with cloths &
• Gibon – special space for the daughter of the chests.
datu.
• 5.0 x 10 m. temporary room, has one
Cultural/behavioral/
lifestyle contexts
❖ Let us begin with a typical day in a torogan, let us begin with Monday.
In Lanao del Sur and Marawi City, Mondays and Thursdays are
important because they are market days in Marawi City and other big
towns around Lake Lanao.
❖ After the dawn prayer, the occupants of the torogan roll their
kolambos in order to provide space for those who are engaged in
mat-weaving, handloom-weaving or some other trades which are
done in the privacy of one’s house. Every bed in the torogan is used
both as working as well as a sleeping and dining area.
❖ The sultan may go back to sleep and go out later to see his tenants
who are busy plowing or planting. Activities inside the torogan are
minimized while there is still an unrolled kolambo, or while the sultan
is still sleeping. However, as soon as the sultan wakes up or when all
the kolambos are rolled, the interior of the torogan becomes a busy
place with its occupants engaged in a variety of activities.

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❖ The handloom weavers unroll their paraphernalia while the mat-
weavers do the same.
Cultural/behavioral/
lifestyle contexts
❖ There is very little activity in the kitchen because the Maranaws in
the past did not eat an early breakfast unlike today. However,
anyone who feels like taking breakfast could do so by eating cold, left-
over rice and fish.
❖ The children in the torogan and sakop, slaves of the sultan go to the
lake to fetch drinking water with bamboos called laya. Inside the
kitchen area is a huge earthen jar where drinking water is stored.
❖ Cleaning the torogan is done very early in the morning so that by
sunrise everything inside is at its proper place. Putting everything in
its right place is called kapanenesu-an and is a revered Maranao trait
indicative of high breeding or upbringing. This is done because a
torogan is a model cultural edifice that the community looks up to.
❖ If the sultan chooses to stay at home, he spends his time reading the
Holy Qur'an beside the window where there is bright light. Or he may

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chose to hum portions of the epic “Darangen,” or read the “kirim,”
the story of Bantugan written on a notebook using Arabicized
Maranaw. Or he may start the day by sharpening his kris.
Cultural/behavioral/
lifestyle contexts
❖ The first visitor arrives at about seven o'clock when the namog
(morning dew) has already evaporated. The visitor may be another
datu accompanied by close relatives or an ordinary Maranaw seeking
justice for a wrong done to him. Whoever the visitor or visitors might
be, the sultan welcomes them warmly. If they are datus, he invites
them to sit with him on his panggao (bed). The female visitors are
likewise welcomed by the sultan’s wife, but they are made to sit in
another bed reserved for women.
❖ The sultan asks his visitors for the purpose of their visit. If it is a rido
(feud caused by a murder) he asks for all the facts of the case. He tells
the visitors to go back some other day so that he would have time to
summon the other party, listen to their side and confer with his close
advisers such as the kali, imam, or other influential datus.
❖ If the visit involves an appeal for a donation or tabang the sultan
calls for his wife and, together, they decide how much to give. Then

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the wife goes to a baor where the family funds and other valuables
are kept and she hands the money to her husband who, in tum, gives
it to the visitors.
Cultural/behavioral/
lifestyle contexts
❖ At nine o'clock, the kitchen starts buzzing with every female member
of a family preparing the noonday meal.
❖ Food for farmers are placed in rattan or bamboo baskets and brought
by their wives to the farm where they eat together. If a farmer wishes
to eat his noonday meal at home, he unharnesses his work animal,
washes his hands in the lake where he leaves the carabao to bathe,
then he returns to the torogan to join his family.
❖ Every family that lives in the torogan eats separately on their own
beds, although they share whatever food or viands that are available;
The practice of sharing food is called kandadawaga
❖ After the meals and dusk prayer, occupants of the torogan start
retreating to their respective beds. Some may opt to read the Holy
Qur’an, hum the “Darangen” or read the “kirim.” Others may choose
to continue weaving.

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❖ After the isha prayer (night prayer), occupants of the torogan
prepare to go to bed.
Cultural/behavioral/
lifestyle contexts
❖ The Torogan is such a public place that people just come and go and even
participate in any on-going discussion without anyone attempting to stop
them.
❖ Before going to bed, the torogan occupants see to it that the work animals
in the kodal are securely tied, with the entrance blocked with bamboo.
❖ Next, the fire in the kitchen is extinguished. The kerosene lamps are either
extinguished leaving only the petromax or two kerosene lamps at both ends
of the torogan’s interior. The windows are closed and barred with wooden
planks. The same is done with the door. Then the kolambos are unrolled to
provide privacy for each family.
❖ Outside the torogan, the manga wala a walai (big houses) and the lawig
(cogon huts) start extinguishing their kerosene lamps. At eight o'clock in the
evening, the community goes to sleep. If a community is under siege
because of a feud with another community, only the women and children

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go to sleep while the men spread around the community with their guns
and other weapons ready for any attack. A beleaguered community is
marked with red flags to show that it is on -ed alert.
Site
Site factors
factors and
and human
human
settlement
settlement setting
setting
❖The Torogan is the ancestral house and the royal
residence of the upper-class Maranao. It is
commonly found in Marawi City and other areas in
Lanao del Sur province. There are also existing
torogans in various locations in Lanao such as the
Dayawan Torogan of Marawi and Laguindab Torogan
of Ganassi.
❖Nowadays, concrete houses are found all over
Maranaw communities, but there remain torogans
a hundred years old. The best-known are torogans
in Dayawan, Marawi City and some others located
around Lake Lanao.
 Summary of valuable
architectural highlights
and its importance
(matrix)
Archtrl Highlight Photo Description/Importance Material
Atup Or the roof of Torogan which is s
Made of bamboo
bonnet type of roof that is widely and cogon grass
flaring ridged

Diongal A colorful carved roof edge décor

Local Wood
which is one of the features of
torogan that signifies its royalty.

Rampatan These are beams that supports the Made from trunk
roof. of Bunga Tree
Post or Tukod A hard tree trunk of huge girths which Made from trunk
are usually carved and decorated with of Bunga Tree
okir motifs and may occasionally
assume a chesspiece-like contour

Tapuwilih It is the center post of the Torogan

Made from trunk
which is surrounded by twenty-five of Bunga Tree
others at the base.

Rounded It is assemblage of huge stones half-

boulders Huge Stones
buried on the ground where post
stands prevent direct contact of the
post with the ground, thus inhibiting
termite attack and wood decay.
“Barimbingan”
planks Make up the “lantay” (flooring) held Made from
together by wooden floor joists called Barimbingan wood
“dolog”.

Towak The wooden staircase of Torogan Made from

carved with folk okir motif. Barimbingan wood

Gisuk and
Tartek (Walls and Wall studs) These things Made from Gisuk
hold the walling planks or the wood
“dingending”.
Panolong The most noticeable feature of the
torogan which are ends of the floor
beams that project and splay out like
triangular butterfly wings that are
ornately carved and painted,
alternately into the niaga/naga and
pako rabong armalis.
Malong A brightly multi-colored weaves Cotton Cloth
hanging from the rafters around a
particular territory for privacy.

Paitaw and Made of bamboo

Rowasan Door and Sliding Windows that has
okir carvings. material lashed
together with
rattan.
 Tiinai-a-walay The carved center beam inside the Made from trunk
house that supports the king post of of Bunga Tree
the roof.

Dorung The multi-purpose ground space created under the

wooden beams.

Poro It is the term use to call the main house on the second
floor which is an open space partitioned only with cloths &
chests.

[Link]
General Conclusion
The Torogan is considered to be one of the national
cultural treasure of the Philippines. It is a traditional ancestral
house of the Maranaos built hundred years ago which
symbolizes rank, prestige and wealth. The torogan is elevated
above the ground mainly built by wooden materials with a
protruding noticeable wing-like feature which is called the
panolong. Engraved to it is the flowing geometries of the
Maranao design which is known as the Okir. For a hundred years
of its history, only few are still standing. One of which is the only
remaining habitable torogan located in Bubung Malanding,
Marantao, Lanao del Sur. The said torogan was built during the
American period by Sultan sa Kawayan Makaantal. Many such
torogans are said to have succumbed to decay and wear. The
finest example of the torogan is the one in the municipality of
Ganasi but has since been dismantled, hence he sees the
rehabilitation of the Kawayan torogan of utmost urgency as
parts of the house have already been reported to have
collapsed. Through all these let us not let this powerful symbol
of culture be just a glimpse of the past.
Creative Visualization
Modern Torogan

This Modern Torogan was designed to harmoniously mix

modern style architecture with the traditional style of a
Maranao Torogan. This house will adapt the most
noticeable and unique feature of the original Torogan which
is the “Panolong”; which will also be accompanied by a
modernized traditional post of a Torogan or “Tukod”. The
objective of this design is to promote modern vernacular
architecture and to showcase a glimpse of the past by
applying some of the historical artistic features of a Torogan.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
SECOND FLOOR PLAN
LOFT PLAN
AXONOMETRIC VIEW
FRONT ELEVATION
REAR ELEVATION
LEFT SIDE ELEVATION
RIGHT SIDE ELEVATION
SECTION PLAN
SITE PLAN