16 Jan Rooms With A View

We’ve recently acquired two books that offer thoughtful appraisals of two vernacular architectural traditions in Malaysia. Wan Hashim and Abdul Halim Nasir’s The Traditional Malay House (ITBM) is an accessible introduction to traditional styles of Malay domestic architecture, nicely illustrated with colour photographs and architectural drawings of earlier and contemporary houses. Meanwhile David G. Kohl’s Chinese Architecture in the Straits Settlements and Western Malaya (Heinemann) is still the best scholarly introduction to the cultural influences that helped shape the unique heritage of temples, kongsis and houses, one of the most important being Malay building practices.