A short but beautiful trip in late 2019 was the last time I managed to set foot in Yangon, visiting the magical Tripitaka Library and being shown around inside. A few photos from the inside below, dug up from the SD card today. Looking at them feels strange, it is February 2021 after all and our friends in Yangon are going through some hard times.
Category Archives: Architecture
YAG 2.0
Our Yangon Architectural Guide, which I co-wrote with Elliott Fox and Manuel Oka, came out in late 2015 and took a little more than four years to sell out its print run. What next? Some ideas regarding a second edition after the jump.
Polk, Squire & Yangon
I was in Yangon in November 2019 to present on modern architecture in post-independence Yangon. In what is the first post in ages to grace this neglected blog, you can find details and a link to download the presentation after the jump.
Reviving a book project
One of the first ideas to come out of writing this blog was to edit a book about Tokyo’s postwar architecture. It’s been several years since and I am wondering how I would go about a book on this or a similar topic now, almost five years later.
Audience feedback
www.yangongui.de
We finally launched the website of our Architectural Guide Yangon. Herewith some notes on the production process and ideas behind it.
Yangon in November
I ventured on a short trip to Yangon last week to launch the website to our book, now online at www.yangongui.de. Manu lovingly and painstakingly put it together over the last couple of months. Go check it out, it’s beautiful (and worthy a separate forthcoming post). Herewith a quick write-up for my records.
The Japanese House after 1945
A major exhibition on Japanese single family homes is still on for a few days here in Tokyo. I did not manage to see the same show’s version on in London (nor Rome) a few months back, but bought both catalogues to compare.
Inside shot from the MOMAT exhibition
What is wrong with our real estate obsession?
We are obsessed with real estate. Dinner parties in big cities in the West are often dominated by talk of a new house, an old one that was just sold, or another one that somehow, sadly, fell through.
UR Research Institute
My university, as part of their fantastic summer program, kindly organized a tour to the Urban Renaissance Agency Technology Research Institute the other day. The most relevant aspect to my research was the Housing Apartment History Hall. Here, some landmark apartments from what to most appear like faceless concrete blocks have been lovingly rebuilt.
Inside Maekawa’s Harumi Apartments