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Politics of Tropical
Modernism
Letter to Editor, RIBA Journal, December 1989,
p19.
" 'Modernism in a Tropical Climate'
shown on the cover of the August RIBA Journal is a
misleading caption to justify the inclusion of Dennis
Sharp's 'Tropical heights', which is no more than an
exercise to promote an architect living in Malaysia, Dr.
Kenneth Yeang. Equally, if not more, misleading is Sharp's
protrayal of Yeang himself as one whose concern for 'climate
of the place' has generated artefacts which are significant
in the making of tropical architecture.
The vignette of the Roof-Roof house, for example, shows that
the 'prevailing wind', forced from the ground floor up to
the roof, only works as a diagram. On site, the directional
air movement, if any, would be prevented by neighbouring
houses. Roof slats not only let in the morning but also the
midday sun whose piercing heat must be stored in the
building mass. It seems that local climatical forces are not
taken seriously, perhaps even misunderstood, just like the
misunderstanding of the plate tectonic which had generated
the Menara Boustead in a country without earthquakes having
to withstand forces up to 6.5 on the Richter scale. This
calls into question Yeang's own notion of 'appropriate
technology'.
Perhaps Yeang is predicting that plate tectonic shifts will
at some time make Malaysia earthquake prone. This would
demolish his belief that climate is the 'unchangeable'
factor in design.
Yeang's appropriation of 'seniority' to traditional forms by
making reference to the pitched form of the traditional
Malay house, his use of the Malay language in the geomantic
trigrams and the acceptance of the Malay names for his
building are but a few examples of the appeasement to
political forces. While marketing to the Malays in this
manner is important, marketing to the Chinese clientele is
also crucial. Here, Feng Shui or the ancient Chinese
geomancy becomes handy. Sharp's attempt trying to literally
translate the use of geomancy by juxtaposing the trigrams
and the Weld Atrium roof seems to bee too thin a veil to
cover this political and economic survival-in-a-developing
country programme."
Wan Burhanuddin, London |