The Living House: An Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia

by Roxana Waterson

This book is the first of its kind to present a detailed picture of the house within the social and symbolic worlds of South-East Asian peoples. It draws on the work of both architects and anthropologists, and features the author's own first-hand research. The volume focuses on the wonderful variety of Indonesian architecture and is richly illustrated with over 200 photographs.

Genres: Architecture

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Tito Quiling, Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had strong historical references and mapping out the similarities between Southeast Asian structures--from civic to domestic architecture. However, I find that some chapters leaned heavily on mainland Southeast Asia, which could have been an issue of which were available at the time of its publication. But this is still a good material to be informed about the basic elements of Southeast Asian architecture that also holds social and political histories, and are represented in today's design elements.

[Granita Ika · Rating 4 out of 5]

A study of Vernacular Architecture in Indonesia. Waterson tried to formulate the typology of houses from some places in Sumatera and Sulawesi. It's a simple explanation about big things we called culture.

I have read some reports for studies from other researcher about this thing, it were always so strict. Waterson in other way could compile her research into enjoyable writing. In my humble opinion, Indonesian architect should read and learn from this book. I believe that we could do better research that what Waterson did, but from Waterson we really learn about writing our research output into a simply book.

[mahatmanto · Rating 4 out of 5]

arsitek nggak punya [atau sedikit sekali] punya buku yang ditulis untuk menjelaskan dirinya sendiri. terpaksa minjem kacamata antropologi, sosiologi, politik, sains, dsb.
termasuk buku ini, yang merupakan pandangan antropologi tentang rumah-rumah adat di nusantara.
pandangan bourdieu yang membedakan habitat dengan habitus dielaboasi di bab terakhir. hal itu menarik karena bourdieu sebagai pemikir yang dikenal baru-baru saja, bisa langsung segera diserap dalam buku ini.