The Living House, the first of its kind to present a detailed picture of the house within the social and symbolic worlds of South-East Asian people, is a pioneering title that has become a classic. It draws on many sources of information, from architects and anthropologists, as well as the author's own first-hand research, and is richly illustrated with over 200 photographs, both old and new. The main focus of the book is Indonesia, but the tracing of historical links between architectural forms reveals a much wider field of enquiry, closely related to the distribution of Austronesian languages and cultures, and extending as far as Madagascar, Japan and Oceania. "A memorable chronicle of some of the richest architectural cultures on earth."--"The New York Times"

Author Biography

Roxana Waterson studied anthropology at New Hall, Cambridge, earning her Ph.D. in 1981. She has been doing fieldwork with the Sa'dan Toraja people of Sulawesi since 1978, and has traveled widely in Southeast Asia in search of indigenous architectures. Since 1984, she has lived in Singapore where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore.