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    Malayan Classicism: From the Architecture of Empire to Asian Vernacular

    Malayan Classicism by Speechley, Soon-Tzu;

    From the Architecture of Empire to Asian Vernacular

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      • Publisher's listprice GBP 24.99
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    12 647 Ft

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    Product details:

    • Publisher Bloomsbury Visual Arts
    • Date of Publication 1 May 2025
    • Number of Volumes Paperback

    • ISBN 9781350360389
    • Binding Paperback
    • No. of pages pages
    • Size 234x156 mm
    • Language English
    • Illustrations 60 bw illus
    • 700

    Categories

    Long description:

    Through a broad range of case studies spanning from imperial monuments to rural residences, Malayan Classicism puts forward a fundamentally new understanding of classical architecture in the Asian colonial context.

    Across Malaysia and Singapore, thousands of historic buildings are richly ornamented with motifs drawn from Ancient Greece and Rome - as plump volutes, lush acanthus leaves, and neat rows of dentils decorate mosques, palaces, government buildings and innumerable terraced shophouses. These classical details jostle with ideas drawn from other architectural traditions from across Asia in a style that is unique to the region.

    Presenting the first comprehensive account of what was, prior to World War II, Malaya's most widespread architectural style, Malayan Classicism explores how the classical architecture of the British Empire was transmitted, translated, and transformed in the hands of local builders and architects. Addressing a critical gap in the scholarship, this book charts the metamorphosis of an imperial language of power into a local vernacular style, and provides a new way of reading classical architecture in a post-colonial context that will be applicable throughout the Global South.

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    Table of Contents:

    Introduction

    1. Columns and Capitals: Colonial Power and Malaya's Capital Cities
    British Classicism in Nineteenth-Century Penang and Singapore
    Capital Ideas: Building Indo-Saracenic Kuala Lumpur
    Variations on a Theme: The Spread of Imperial Capitalism in British Malaya

    2. A Classical Education: The Architecture of Schools in British Malaya
    St Joseph's Institution, Singapore
    The Tao Nan Chinese School, Singapore
    The Malay College, Kuala Kangsar,
    The Malay Free School at Jalan Sultan, Singapore
    The Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur

    3. Classical Monuments for the Modern Sultan: Royal Patronage of Classical Architecture in the Johor Sultanate
    The Istana Besar at Johor Bahru
    The Sultan Abu Bakar Mosque
    Sultan Ibrahim's Banqueting Hall
    The Muar Mosque

    4. Coarsened or Cosmopolitan? Re-reading Malaya's Vernacular Classicism
    A Diverse Profession
    An Emerging Vernacular: Shophouses before the Twentieth Century
    Nascent Eclecticism
    A Consolidated Style
    New Accents, New Languages: From Art Deco to Modernism

    5. Vestal Versions: Malaya's Temples of Commerce
    Early Warehouses and Godowns
    European Banks and Trading Houses
    The Maritime Gateways of Empire
    The China Building, Boat Quay

    6. Decline and Fall? The Supreme Court, Empress Place, and the Kallang Aerodrome
    Monumental Translation
    Imperial Monuments, Colonial Labour
    Modernity in Antiquity: The Materiality of the Supreme Court
    Trial by Media: Critical Backlash to the Supreme Court in the Colonial Press
    Grand Designs: Ward's Unrealised Civic District
    Taking Flight: The Kallang Aerodrome

    Conclusion: Translations and Transitions

    Bibliography
    Index

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