The Making of a Nipa Cottage

Aling Esperanza Gonzales is the owner of a Nipa cottage family business in Taytay, Rizal for 5 years. She is a native of Pangasinan whose relatives make a living by making nipa houses. She and some of her relatives moved to Taytay, Rizal to start the nipa cottage and furniture making business. Most of her clients were resort owners and residents who have a large space for their gardens.

The nipa cottage business of Mrs. Gonzales is currently located in Highway 2000 in Taytay, Rizal but the materials used in making nipa cottages like bamboo usually comes from Baras or Tanay in Rizal, while thatched nipa palm leaves or pawid comes from Pangasinan.

How a Nipa cottage is made:

Four bamboo poles and coco lumber are used to erect the framework of the cottage. Bamboo poles function as pillars while coco lumber is used as joists to support the flooring, sitting area and upper support of the structure. The outer skins of bamboos have to be removed manually by the use of bolo.



Next, bamboo slats are laid over and nailed to the coco lumber joists to serve as the floor and place for sitting.



Wider bamboo slats are nailed and cut with a saw to cover the joists of the upper framework.



Next, the pyramidal roof framework is constructed out of bamboo.



Walls are made by nailing bamboo slats on two long bamboo poles. The bamboo walls are attached between the bamboo pillars of the body framework. The slats are also added to cover the lower part of the structure.





Next, dried Nipa palm thatch panels were laid by overlapping them on the roof framework.




The nipa cottage is now built completely with a door optionally added.  A net covers the roof and the black designs are applied by creatively burning some parts of the bamboo. The last step is varnishing.









This homey cottage takes a week to build by one or two persons. Ordinary cottages cost from twelve to twenty five thousand pesos while cottages with a room may cost forty to fifty thousand pesos.