You would probably expect the people to live in the first one, but more then fifty percent of all the families on the island live in their traditional home, even with the current governmental rules which demands them to abandon these houses because of health risks. Because there is no smoke hole in the hut and wood is burning all day long to preserve food, lung diseases are common. But, even with this knowledge in mind, people stay living the traditional way. There must be a good reason for it. In fact there are two.
Spherical buildings are capable to resist climat in a better way than normal houses do.
The amount of wall surface is less with the same volume. Because of that, it is easier to keep such a home cool during the daytime and warm at night. The other reason people in Timor do it the traditional way, is that the noise of rain is silenced by the grass in stead of attenuated by wood or corrugated iron. If you've ever been in the Netherlands, you will know that we have a lot of grass. Because we are using cows to eat it, it is normally not longer than about 5 inches.