I’m back from Yangon, where together with my co-authors I launched the Architectural Guide Yangon at the Goethe-Institut Myanmar. A quick summary of the event after the jump.
Author Archives: benbansal
Bauhaus
While on our brief stopover in Germany this September, my parents took us for a ride to Weimar and Dessau. I had never been before, and it was great to see and stay in the Bauhaus. Some photos and impressions after the jump.
The Bauhaus main building in Dessau (some photos taken by my mother)
Celebrating China’s rise with Japan in mind
In his last column as the FT’s Asia Editor, David Pilling celebrates the rise of China. The parallels to Japan’s meteoric ascent — until the bursting of the bubble in 1990 — are worth spelling out, for they are often confused and conflated.
Misguided optimism?
Gearing up and looking back
I blogged quite regularly about Japan’s economic history when living here in 2012-13. A fellow student of mine stumbled upon one of the posts during his research. As my first paper is soon due (it will look at the “default reconstruction” of Tokyo’s urban industries), I took this as a reminder to also look here for some clues for my current research.
A Hitachi washing machine as exhibited in the Edo Museum (more here)
Planetary screening
My university hosted a Planetary screening the other day. Guy, the film’s director, came along to take questions from the audience.
Tokyo redux
It’s been almost two months that I have re-relocated to Tokyo and I still have not found the time to record some initial observations. High time then I suppose!
Benjamin Polk
During the research for our Yangon Architectural Guide, we came across this American architect. He built the Tripitaka Library (Pitaka Taik), also known as the Great Buddhist Library in Yangon. Some scribbles below the jump.
Tripitaka Library, photo by Manuel Oka
On inspiration
This blog is a sounding board and a notepad. Almost three years into writing here with varying regularity, I have hardly summed up my thoughts regarding some of the admittedly few books I read. Yet David Graeber’s Utopia of Rules and Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything deserve some reflection. 
Two great covers, two great books
Society and Space
On top of the post about our Architectural Guide Yangon, here comes my introduction to the book. In selecting a photo to run with this, I randomly chose a map of the Kaba Aye (World Peace) complex I found in a book in the Library of Congress.
Architectural Guide Yangon
It is done! The book Elliott, Manu and I have been working on for over two years got published earlier this month. 400 pages, 300+ images, almost a kilogram in weight, it’s become quite a tome! Some uncollated thoughts after the jump.
