In pre-colonial
times, many Bicol houses were perched on trees for protection from the sun and
insects.
In the Spanish
and early American colonial periods, the less privileged lived in native huts
located some distance from the center of town, in coastal or inland barrios.
They used light materials for their houses.
Theses dwellings
had wooden posts and were elevated about 1 to 2 m above the ground. The
framework and floor were made of bamboo; their walls, flap windows and hip roof
of leaves of nipa or gogon grass.
These one room houses,
which usually had no divisions, had minimal furniture, like a bench; allow
table and a chest of storage of clothes.
But in the
contemporary period, most native huts have been replacing by American-type
bungalows or two-story houses with the sala, kitchen and toilet below, and the
sleeping quarters on the second floor. These houses are usually made of hollow
blocks and cement. Wood is used for the second floor of two-story houses. Roofs
are galvanized iron; the windows are slide or the vertical-flap types.
Nowadays,
there are still hut made houses but it is already common that others now have
bungalows to withstand the impact of strong typhoons that usually strikes.