Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Traditional architecture, which has evolved in harmony with the natural environment and the rhythms of a daily life far removed from industrialised society, is inspiring new interest throughout the world. Nowhere is more deserving of this attention than the islands of the Indonesian archipelago, whose huge range of peoples and terrain have produced the most extraordinary vernacular building.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Gillow (independent scholar), collaborator with photographer Dawson on Traditional Indonesian Textiles (CH, Jul'93), surveys Indonesia's ancient vernacular architecture and shows how it has been conserved, copied, and adapted to modern housing requirements. Drawing on earlier studies such as Jacques Dumar,cay's The House in South-East Asia (1987) and Roxana Waterson's The Living House: An Anthropology of Architecture in South-East Asia (1990), Gillow begins with the characteristic indigenous wood house, which arose under equatorial conditions and contact with foreign peoples. The attributes of the native trees and plants and how they were used to form frame, walls, and thatch are examined in detail. The rest of the book describes how this basic house was changed in size, shape, and decoration by the different ethnic groups inhabiting Sumatra; Java, Bali, and Lombok; Borneo and Sulawesi; and the outer islands. Due attention is given to the symbolic meaning of the architectural carvings and paintings. The easy style, clear diagrams, historical photographs, and, most of all, Dawson's 192 superb color photographs of villages, houses, barns, and meeting houses make an attractive package for undergraduates in Asian studies, architecture, archaeology, and art history. Map, glossary. Undergraduate; graduate; general. M. Morehart; University of British Columbia

Booklist Review

On the whole, there are remarkably more similar elements to be found in the architecture of Indonesia than disparate aspects, especially given the great ethnic diversity existing among its peoples and the vast distances separating its scores of islands in the Pacific. Although their descriptive style is dry, Dawson and Gillow may be commended for an expansive overview of the country's vernacular buildings and rich decorative heritage. Traditional village life is defined by colorful images of common structures--thatched rice barns, threshing houses, public meeting halls, and family compounds, often distinguished by steeply pitched roofs and stilt foundations. Black-and-white drawings augment the text, detailing building methods, materials, and symbolism. ~--Alice Joyce