Introduction to Balinese Architecture FROM THE PUBLISHER
This book is intended to provide the visitor to Bali with a step-by-step guide to the complexities of Balinese domestic and religious architecture. Watercolor illustrations of panoramas, important sites, building types, design concepts, and construction techniques complement a concise, informative text and help to elucidate the meaning of many of the places that visitors will see during a stay on the island.
Author Bio: Julian Davison grew up in Singapore and Malaysia, but was educated in England where he earned a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology. He currently lives in Singapore where he is a freelance writer, editor, and illustrator.
SYNOPSIS
A Singapore-based freelance writer explains how Balinese buildings—shown in color illustrations—are structured by religious beliefs, social status, climate, and other factors. Originally published in separate volumes as Balinese Architecture and Balinese Temples in 1999. Distributed by Tuttle. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Everyone has tropical escape fantasies, and as winter gloom seeps over the Northern Hemisphere, these two books will provide excellent fodder for dreams. Introduction to Balinese Architecture is just what the title indicates, a straightforward survey in photographs and drawings of the most notable buildings in Bali both ancient and modern, with a short, clear text explaining each two-page thematic section. Davison is an anthropologist, and his text sets each complex of buildings in its proper context within Balinese society. In a quick 80 pages, we hustle through Balinese home life, worship, death practices, and cosmology and then end up with a few pages of contemporary luxury hotels. Illustrations from numerous contributors abound. The sumptuous photos by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni, a premier coffee-table photographer of Southeast Asia, and the simple color sketches nowhere stray from the tasteful classic architecture into the teeming concrete cities or hideous beach strips, but that is part of keeping the dream alive. This is a good first glance at Bali for a general audience. Architecture Bali takes a quick romp through the erotics of tropical fantasy. If reading Miguel Covarubias's classic Island of Bali hasn't sent you to the airline counter, then this book surely will (just remember your platinum card). Spread over large-format pages, the staggeringly beautiful photos are little interrupted by short bursts of text giving a history of the luxury hotel-building business in the last three decades of the 20th century. Since classical Balinese architecture is not perfectly adapted to the needs and whims of super-rich tourists, an elaborate confection of polished stone floors, carved wood walls, and thatched or shingled roofs have been combined with the kind of swimming pools you see only in ads to create a fantasy style of hotel. These hotels, physically located on the island of Bali but in no way linked to the culture and ethos of Indonesian society, are exactly the spark that ignites revolution. They are, however, more beautiful than the grim lines of concrete egg crates lining the beaches to house the hordes of less wealthy trekkers and surfers who were the victims of the recent bombing aimed at expressing revolutionary anger. For architects and students of postcolonial theory, this will be a great way to pass the winter.-David McClelland, Philadelphia Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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