The Cham House: A Masterclass in Climate Wisdom

No.112 — Read old posts on Tinyfarmlab.com
Reading Time 5 minutes

Some houses are clever.
Some are beautiful.
But a few,
like the Cham house, are wise.

We first saw the Cham house in Hanoi.
It stood quietly in the Museum of Ethnology.
Even far from its coast,
it felt alive.

It was one of the most climate-wise homes we’ve ever seen.

The Cham are an ancient seafaring people
from Vietnam’s south-central coast.

Most Cham today live in Ninh Thuận province,
one of the driest and sunniest regions of the country.
They follow a matriarchal system.
After marriage,
the husband moves into his wife’s home.

Each sister has her own chamber in the family compound.
A house here is not just a shelter.
It’s a living map of relationships.

A Cham home isn’t one house,
it’s a cluster.
Usually five small houses,
arranged along the east–west axis
for light and wind.

Together,
they form a family courtyard shaded by tamarind trees.

Each chamber has a role:

One for the parents and unmarried siblings.

One for the newlyweds,
which also hosts family rituals and ceremonies.

• A kitchen house in the northwest.

• A well on the northeast side.

• And another chamber for grandparents or tools,
  depending on the family’s status.

Wealthy families might have seven chambers,
symbolizing completeness.
Ordinary families have five,
representing the five fingers
or the five elements of the universe.

If one element is missing, life falls out of balance.
Even the house reminds them that harmony sustains the world.

The Double Roof

The most brilliant feature of the Cham house
is its double roof.

An inner bamboo mud ceiling lies just beneath
a steep clay-tile roof,
with a pocket of air in between.

Even under the midday sun,
the rooms stay cool and calm.

The walls are done as wattle and daub,
cob over bamboo.

The Cham house doesn’t sit flat on the earth.
It rests lightly above it.
Short stone pads lift the wooden frame
a few inches off the ground.

This small detail does big work:

• It prevents moisture from wicking into the walls.

• It lets air circulate below, drying the floor after rain.

• It keeps termites and pests away.

How It’s Built

The process is sacred.
A date is chosen with care.
At dawn, the family gathers.

The pillars are raised first,
over the stone pads,
connecting earth to sky.


The walls are packed and shaped by hand.
The double roof is added last,
The house’s great lung.

No machine is used.
It’s a community effort.

The carpenters don’t use nails.
They use tenons and string ties instead.

Near every house stands a tamarind tree.
Its fruit cools the body, its shade softens the ground.
It’s believed to bless fertility
and guard the family’s spirit.
Even in death,
a tamarind branch is carried to the pyre,
a symbol that life never truly leaves the soil.

Once the construction is finished,
Cham people dress in traditional costumes
and perform joyous folk songs and dances.

The Cham house stands as quiet proof
that sustainability isn’t new.
It’s just ancient wisdom
we’ve forgotten to remember.

Love and light,
Raghav and Ansh

P.S.: We are back in Rishikesh, and Tiny Farm Fort is opening again soon for you to come and stay. Reach out to us to book it!


What you can watch -

What you can listen to - Girish Karnawat on Modern Regionalism, Craft, and Context

What You Can Read - Study on Vietnamese Design Methods of Traditional Vernacular Architecture and Discussion on Their Technical Origins

If you found value in this newsletter, please consider sharing it with a friend.

Kindly forward them this link.

You can read old posts here.

Tiny Farm Friends Newsletter.
Every Sunday, we share tiny valuable lessons to help you transition to the countryside and build naturally.