{"id":3954,"date":"2017-04-04T02:29:14","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T02:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benbansal.me\/?page_id=3954"},"modified":"2017-05-26T05:27:08","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T05:27:08","slug":"yangon-architectural-guide","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/?page_id=3954","title":{"rendered":"Yangon Architectural Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am one of the authors of <em>Yangon\u00a0<\/em><em>Architectural Guide,\u00a0<\/em>a book that came out with DOM publishers in late 2015.\u00a0My personal journey began in 2013, and much of it has been documented on <a href=\"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/?cat=21\">this blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The book has received some attention since its publication. This list will be updated as we go along:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;This sumptuous, evocative book captures the energies of a city in the midst of rapid change. At the same time it is suffused with traces of Yangon\u2019s complex, often troubled, past. I enjoyed the mix of architectural commentary, urban geography, and excellent photography that the authors bring to the book. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in Yangon and Myanmar; it works equally well as a guide for first-time visitors, and as an invitation to those who know the city to see it through fresh eyes.&#8221;<br \/>\n<em>&#8212; Sunil Amrith, Professor of South Asian History at Harvard University<\/em><\/li>\n<li>&#8220;This is an excellent book that has something for everyone. Those new to Yangon will appreciate the depth and background of sites and their histories, as well as the fact that the book extends to neighborhoods not usually covered in guidebooks. As someone who has lived in the city for long stretches of time, I loved learning new things about places I regularly passed but never thought twice about. The writing on architectural styles was also very accessible for a non-specialist, just enough to make you feel that you&#8217;d learned something meaningful, but not too dense and mostly focused on contextualizing buildings within the city&#8217;s rich and diverse history.&#8221;<br \/>\n<em id=\"__mceDel\">&#8212; Matthew Walton, Aung San Suu Kyi Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University<\/em><\/li>\n<li>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;The book is refreshingly different \u2013 in its presentation of history, architecture, photography and current challenges. Its beauty lies in the fact that it is difficult to categorize it as any particular genre. It is poetic and lyrical, as well as gripping. It gives us an idea about the endless creative ways in which one can present a city and opens our hearts and minds into appreciating the latent stories embedded in colossal structures. The book inspires us in not only getting to know our cultural heritage but also involving ourselves in rejuvenating the same with sensibility and sensitivity.&#8221;<br \/>\n<em id=\"__mceDel\"> <em id=\"__mceDel\">&#8212; Reshmi Banerjee, Tea Circle Oxford: An Oxford Forum For New Perspectives on Burma\/Myanmar (read the whole review <a href=\"https:\/\/teacircleoxford.com\/2017\/04\/05\/architectural-guide-yangon-by-ben-bansal-elliott-fox-and-manuel-oka-dom-publishers-berlin-2015-399-pages\/\">here)<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Brilliant combination of photos and text&#8230; A remarkably well done description of significant buildings in Yangon\/Rangoon along with delightful short takes on the historical context and the current atmosphere in this rapidly changing city.&#8221;<br \/>\n<i>&#8212; Lex Rieffel, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>German architectural magazine\u00a0<em>Bauwelt<\/em>\u00a0has reviewed the book\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bauwelt.de\/themen\/buecher\/Yangon-Architectural-Guide-2786008.html\">here<\/a>.\u00a0A post with some translated passages is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/?p=3908\">here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Coconuts Yangon has also reviewed the book and interviewed Elliott\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coconuts.co\/yangon\/2015\/11\/19\/read-guide-yangons-magnificent-architecture-both-old-and-new\">here<\/a>. &#8220;The city that emerges in the\u00a0<i>Architectural Guide\u00a0<\/i>is both living and changing.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The UK Guardian mentions our book in an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/cities\/2016\/may\/20\/myanmar-democracy-yangon-changing-skyline\">investigative piece<\/a>\u00a0on Yangon&#8217;s breakneck development amid Myanmar&#8217;s opening-up.<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>We had some book-related coverage in architectural publications such as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.curbed.com\/2015\/5\/29\/9955684\/the-modernist-buildings-of-yangon\">Curbed <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uncubemagazine.com\/blog\/15888275\">Uncube<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>Elliott wrote an <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/542905\/yangons-architecture-is-a-window-into-myanmars-rocky-past\/\">article <\/a>for Quartz on the eve of Myanmar&#8217;s historic elections in 2015.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can buy the guide on Amazon (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Yangon-Architectural-Guide-Ben-Bansal\/dp\/3869223758\/\">US<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Yangon-Architectural-Guide-Ben-Bansal\/dp\/3869223758\/\">UK<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.de\/Yangon-Architectural-Guide-Ben-Bansal\/dp\/3869223758\/\">Germany<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.fr\/Yangon-Architectural-Guide-Ben-Bansal\/dp\/3869223758\/\">France<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.jp\/Yangon-Architectural-Guide-Ben-Bansal\/dp\/3869223758\/\">Japan<\/a>), or directly from the <a href=\"https:\/\/dom-publishers.com\/products\/yangon\">publisher<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The back cover text reads:<\/p>\n<p><em>Architectural Guide Yangon<\/em>\u00a0presents around one hundred memorable buildings from Myanmar\u2019s historical capital. Following decades of international isolation, the city\u2019s vast heritage remains largely, surprisingly and spectacularly intact. Rangoon \u2013 as it was known under the British \u2013 was a melting pot of British India. Vivid traces of this legacy are everywhere, especially in the city\u2019s Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim houses of worship that often stand side by side, down town, in Yangon\u2019s tightly-gridded streets. Since the country\u2019s independence from the British in 1948, successive authoritarian regimes have also stamped the cityscape with their legacies. Today Yangon is a bustling and busy city in flux, at the frontier of Myanmar\u2019s rapid opening to the wider world. Yangon\u2019s urban fabric deserves a systematic guide that nourishes every visitor and resident\u2019s shared fascination for the city and its history, offering countless anecdotes and notes on architectural detail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am one of the authors of Yangon\u00a0Architectural Guide,\u00a0a book that came out with DOM publishers in late 2015.\u00a0My personal journey began in 2013, and much of it has been documented on this blog. The book has received some attention &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/?page_id=3954\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3954","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3954"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3957,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3954\/revisions\/3957"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benbansal.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}