EXPLORE ARCHITECTURE OUTSIDE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN NARRATIVE WITH THIS BOOK FROM GESTALTEN
TEXT: PONGSIRI KEMAYUTTANA
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN
(For Thai, press here)
Gestalten, 2020
9.84 x 1.18 x 12.09 inches
304 pages
Hardcover
ISBN 978-3899558791
For many decades, Western architecture has largely dominated the discourses and built environment worldwide. It was only recently that architects from non-Western countries could truly establish a global recognition and draw attention from the West. While the basic challenges of architectural practice remain the same all over the world, the architects in non- Western countries – often labelled as developing countries – often find strikingly unique solutions to different requirements including sustainability, transportation, migration, construction materials, and traditions.
This book investigates architecture across Asia, Africa, and the Americas to see how architects in these regions respond to a changing world with a focus on vernacular applications that serves the requirement of a specific place at a particular time.
In Namibia, a lodge in a wildlife conservancy designed by Porky Hefer is an echo of the local bird’s nest. In Mexico, the buildings created by Frida Escobedo evolves, just like the social context around them does, just like the city – expressive, adaptable, and never finished. In Thailand, Boonserm Premthada draws from a material palette of humble and overlooked items and have elevated them through the power of design in his Kantana Institute and The Wine Ayutthaya.
One limitation of architecture is that it is static. It can not come before you but can only be understood and appreciated at its place. Beyond the West serves as a good eye opening and inspiring source for those, especially in the West, who are looking across the border to the interesting architecture outside Europe and America, even though you may not explore these wonders yourself it is better than not seeing it nor realising different types of architecture at all.