Award-winning house for sale

BANGI: An Aga Khan Award-winning house is up for sale and the owners are hoping for a buyer who will preserve it as a heritage property. 

Retired physicist Datuk Dr Rudin Salinger and his wife Datin Munira have decided to sell their home, which they named Rudinara, as they are no longer able to maintain it. 

Located on 1.21ha of Malay reserve land in the quiet area of Sungai Merab Luar near here, Rudinara was built by the late master craftsman Ibrahim Adam.  

It was constructed without any nails and made entirely of cengal wood.  

The house, with a built-up area of 195 square metres, was completed in 1992 after six-and-a-half years. 

UNIQUE BUILDING: Rudinara as seen from the outside. The house is made entirely of cengal wood without the use of a single nail.

It features beautiful details like special wooden joints for the internal flooring and on the doors and window frames, and handmade tiles, many embossed with the names of the couple in Arabic. 

Carvings by Wan Su Othman and his son Wan Mustafa, Malaysia’s foremost woodcarvers, are found on almost every doorway.  

The house won the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1998 for its significant contribution to Islamic architecture in the residency category. 

“Ideally, we would like it to be preserved. We don’t want someone to inherit it and sell it for a quick buck,” said Dr Rudin, 75.  

“It would also be nice if the buyer would want to keep it in the spirit that it was built.”  

K.K. Yap, manager, prestige homes division, of Rahim & Co, which is handling the sale of the property, said it would be pitched as a heritage house. 

He added that the price – believed to be more than RM2mil – would only be quoted to serious buyers.  

“The house was a labour of love, and it took a lot of time and effort to build. We are hoping to get a buyer who will appreciate it for its traditions and culture,” he said. 

Related Story:The house that Rudin built