Roofing in Fiji

Fiji's traditional buildings were the vale (family house) and the bure (men's house), timber-framed and thatched, with components stacked and tied with rope. Today almost every household lives under a metal roof. The 2016 landfall of Tropical Cyclone Winston, the strongest storm then recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, made roof fixing and the cyclone performance of traditional houses central topics in Fijian building.

Climate and hazards

Fiji lies in the South Pacific cyclone belt and has a hot, humid maritime climate with heavy seasonal rain. Tropical Cyclone Winston, a Category 5 storm, made landfall on 20 February 2016, killed 44 people and caused severe damage to housing, agriculture and public buildings. Damage assessors reported widespread construction shortcuts such as incorrect strapping and flimsy foundations. Salt air near the coast shortens the life of metal sheet and fasteners.

Roofing history

Before European contact, Fijian houses were built from whatever local materials were available, with components stacked, tied with rope, or both. Ethnic Fijians distinguished two main house types: the vale, where families lived and cooked around hearth pits, and the bure, a men's house where initiated men of the clan met, ate and slept. Both were dark and smoky, without windows and usually with one low door. Earth floors were covered with grass or fern leaves and then with pandanus or coconut-leaf mats.

As elsewhere in the Pacific, corrugated iron spread with colonial trade, mission building and later aid programmes (see spread of corrugated iron). By the 21st century thatch had almost disappeared from household roofs, though traditional houses survive in villages such as Navala, and the word bure has been taken up by tourism to mean a detached resort bungalow.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

The Fijian bure is a widely known form. A study by Massey University researchers in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction found that traditional bure share several features recommended internationally for cyclone resistance: relatively short walls, few wall openings, an elevated rock base and a steep hipped roof with small eaves. After Winston, residents of Navala said their traditional houses performed better than contemporary ones and that most damage came from debris blown off modern houses. The researchers noted that some villages appear to have lost traditional building knowledge.

Roofing today

In the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 96.5% of household records listed metal, tin or corrugated iron as the main roof material; cement was 1.4% and wood planks about 1%, while thatch, palm or coconut leaf accounted for about 0.1%. These are unweighted case counts from the survey sample. The 2017 census counted 191,910 private households.

Codes, standards and regulation

The National Building Code of Fiji dates from 1990 and operates under the Public Health Act 1935 and the Public Health (National Building Code) Regulations 2004, with building permits regulated by a 2017 Act. A revision of the code with assistance from the Asian Development Bank began in 2023.

Notable roofs

Thatched village houses at Navala are among the best-known surviving examples of traditional Fijian roofing.

Local roofing terms

• Bure: men's house; now also a tourist bungalow.
• Vale: family dwelling house.
• Icili: an older Fijian term the source suggests is more traditionally correct for a resort-style cabin.

Sources and gaps

No information on domestic roofing manufacturers was found in published sources.