Roofing in Indonesia

Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands and hundreds of ethnic groups, has some of the most varied traditional roofs in the world. In many of its vernacular houses the roof is the dominant element, rising in saddle, horned or towering forms far above walls and floor. Today clay tile covers more than half of Indonesian homes, with zinc-coated steel, asbestos-cement and concrete making up most of the rest.

Climate and hazards

The country is equatorial, hot and humid, with heavy rain for much of the year. It lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, so earthquakes and volcanic eruptions (with ashfall loading on roofs) are major hazards. Highland interiors are cooler. Traditional responses include steep roofs that shed rain fast, large overhanging eaves that keep walls dry and shaded, and houses raised on piles.

Roofing history

Early Austronesian communal longhouses, built of timber on stilts, had steeply sloping roofs and heavy gables; the Batak and Toraja house forms are seen as descendants of this tradition. Javanese temples and later royal architecture introduced stacked roofs: the Great Mosque of Demak, built in 1474, has a multi-tiered roof, and Bali's tiered meru shrine roofs derive from Majapahit-era forms.

In the colonial era, Dutch-period programmes that replaced traditional homes introduced brick houses with corrugated iron roofs. Mid-18th-century "Indies style" buildings borrowed Javanese joglo and limasan roof structures, and early 20th-century colonial architects used high-pitched roofs with Javanese ridge details. The Islamic dome did not appear on Indonesian mosques until the 19th century; earlier mosques, such as Demak, used tiered roofs.

After independence, traditional roof forms became symbols of regional identity. In the 1980s, government buildings in Padang were given large concrete Minangkabau-style roofs, and universities and airports adopted joglo and meru motifs.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Minangkabau rumah gadang (West Sumatra): multiple upswept gonjong gables, traditionally thatched in black sugar-palm fibre (ijuk).
• Batak Toba jabu (North Sumatra): a huge saddleback roof with sharply projecting gables, carried on longitudinal beams without internal trusses; Karo houses have tiered hip roofs up to 15 m (49 ft) high, thatched and bound with ijuk.
• Toraja tongkonan (South Sulawesi): boat-shaped saddle roofs of layered split bamboo.
• Javanese houses: not raised on piles; roofs are ranked by status from the simple kampung to the limasan and the steep, two-peaked joglo reserved for nobility.
• Balinese compounds: thatched pavilions (bale) and temple shrines with roofs of ijuk, coconut or rumbia leaves, or hardwood shingles (sirap).
• Nias omo sebua: chiefs' houses with towering roofs on ironwood pillars.
• Sumba: thatched "high-hat" roofs; Papua (Dani): thatched dome-roofed honai huts; South Kalimantan: steep bubungan tinggi roofs of Banjar houses.

Roofing today

Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show that 55.86% of Indonesian houses have clay tile (genteng) roofs. Tile is strongly concentrated on Java and Bali: DI Yogyakarta (94.38%), East Java (91.56%), Central Java (86.35%), Lampung (84.93%), West Java (82.01%), Banten (78.05%) and Bali (77.91%) all exceed the national average, while DKI Jakarta (38.01%) is well below it. Asbestos-cement roofs covered 9.34% of households nationally in the 2026 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas), rising above half in Bangka Belitung (56.70%) and Jakarta (54.59%). Zinc-coated steel sheet (seng) makes up much of the remainder and is widespread on rural houses.

Codes, standards and regulation

In its housing statistics, BPS treats roof durability as one of four components of decent housing (rumah layak huni). Concrete, clay tile, zinc sheet and wooden shingle roofs meet the criterion; asbestos does not. In 2026, 87.5% of households met the building-durability criterion. In February 2026 President Prabowo Subianto called for all Indonesian houses to use clay tile roofs, a proposal known as gentengisasi, citing heat and rust problems with zinc roofs; the Ministry of Housing and Settlement Areas said it was studying how to implement it.

Industry

Clay tile is produced largely by small and medium enterprises; Jatiwangi in Majalengka, West Java, is a well-known tile-making centre.

Notable roofs

• Pagaruyung Palace, West Sumatra: a three-storey rumah gadang.
• Great Mosque of Demak (1474): an early multi-tiered mosque roof.
• Grand Pendopo of the Mangkunegaran Palace, Surakarta: a very large joglo roof.
• Tana Toraja villages: rows of tongkonan.

Local roofing terms

• atap - roof; genteng / genting - clay tile; seng - zinc-coated steel sheet; asbes - asbestos-cement sheet
• ijuk - black sugar-palm fibre thatch; rumbia - sago palm leaf thatch; sirap - wooden shingles; alang-alang - grass thatch
• gonjong - horned Minangkabau gable; joglo, limasan, kampung - Javanese roof types; tumpang sari - stepped beam ceiling of the joglo

Sources and gaps

National shares for zinc and concrete roofs and the SNI standards for roofing products: published information is limited.