Bahay kubo

The báhay kúbo, kubo, or payág (in the Visayan languages), is a type of stilt house indigenous to the Philippines. It is the traditional basic design of houses among almost all the lowlanders of the entire Philippines. Often serving as an icon of Philippine culture, its design heavily influenced the Spanish colonial-era bahay na bato's architecture.

The English term nipa hut is also usually used interchangeably with báhay kúbo, although not all báhay kúbo use nipa materials or are huts. Both "nipa hut" and báhay kúbo are also used incorrectly to refer to similar but different vernacular architecture in the Philippines.

The Filipino term báhay kúbo roughly means "country house", from Tagalog. The term báhay ("house") is derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay referring to "public building" or "community house"; while the term kúbo ("hut" or "[one-room] country hut") is from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *kubu, "field hut [in rice fields]".

The term "nipa hut", introduced during the Philippines' American colonial era, refers to the hut version of bahay kubo. While nipa leaves were the thatching (pawid) material often used for the roofs, not all bahay kubo are huts or used nipa materials.

Distinction between each tribes and cultures' style may have been more visible during the pre-hispanic period. Different architectural designs are present among each ethnolinguistic group in what is now the Philippines and throughout the Southeast Asia and Pacific as part of the whole Austronesian architecture.

They were designed to endure the climate and environment of the Philippines. These structures were temporary, made from plant materials like bamboo. The accessibility of the materials made it easier to rebuild when damaged by a storm or earthquake.

The advent of the Spanish colonial era introduced the idea of building more permanent communities around church and government centers.

Christianized peoples such as the Tagalogs, Visayans, Ilocanos, Kapampangans, Bicolanos, Cagayanons, Zambals, Pangasinenses, Ivatans, Mestizos, Criollos, Chinese and Japanese were send to live in the lowlands. This established a community with most population of Austronesian origin, each having their own distinct traditions of Austronesian architecture, dating back even before the Hispanic period. They collectively evolved a style of construction that soon became synonymous with the christian lowland culture architecture known as bahay kubo.