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Falafa is a typical material used for building house in Madagascar. Trano means house, and trano falafa is a house built of falafa. You can find this typical Malagasy house especially on the coast.
A trano falafa is made up with three materials: falafa, ravimpotsy, and rapaka. These materials are mainly derived from two plants: ravinala and gigantic bamboo.
Ravinala provides the falafa used for making walls and the ravimpotsy--literally the leaves of the fontsy, the name given by the Betsimisaraka tribe to ravinala--used as roof.
Falafa is actually the main veins of ravimpotsy. To make the walls and the ravimpotsy layered, these veins are threaded transversally through long pieces of bamboo and tied on the roof structure.
The rapaka used as floor, is made of flattened bamboo trunks. An alternative for the floor is a bark of some tree which I can't remember the name.
In general, a trano falafa has only one room, a wooden structure, and built on short stilt.
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Trano Falafa
