Southeast Asian Houses: Expanding Tradition

Seo Ryeung Ju is a professor in the Department of Housing and Interior Design at Kyung Hee University. She established the Asian Research Center for Housing (ARCH) as an anchor of the Asian Housing Education & Research Network, which serves as a professional network for researchers and professionals in the area of housing studies in Asian regions. As her first action with ARCH, she organized the first Southeast Asian Housing Forum, titled “Commonality and Diversity in Southeast Asian Housing: A Search for New Identity,” which was held in Seoul, Korea, on October 6-7, 2011, with twelve housing professionals from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. This laid groundwork for sharing the housing cultures of each Southeast Asian country and building a strong academic network.

Himasari Hanan is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture of Institut Teknologi Bandung. Currently her research focus is on Batak Toba architecture and Bali Aga architecture. She wrote an article on the traditional Batak Toba house in Village Architecture in Sumatra (2016), published by IVA-ICRA, Vienna, Austria, as well as other international conferences and journals.

Syed Iskandar Ariffin is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). As a senior member of the Council of Architectural Accreditation and Education Malaysia, he has led many initiatives in architectural education in Malaysia, most significantly serving as chief editor of The Manual of Accreditation for Architecture Programme (2013). Currently he is the executive director of the Institut Sultan Iskandar, UTM’s research and consultancy company, focusing on urban habitat and sustainability.

Wandee Pinijvarasin is an architect working as a lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Architecture at Kasetsart University. Her research encompasses the evolution of vernacular houses and their cultural meaning in central Thailand provinces, cross-cultural comparative studies of Lao Viang ethnics in Thailand and Laos, and vernacular architecture for cottage industries in Phetchaburi.

Var Morin is a lecturer of the history of Khmer architecture and architectural conservation at the Royal University of Fine Arts, Cambodia.

Hoang Manh Nguyen is an associate professor of the Department of Architecture at Hanoi Architectural University (HAU) in Vietnam. Currently, he is the executive director of the Institute of Green Urban Development.

Min Kyoung Kim is a part-time lecturer at Kyung Hee University and Seowon University in Korea.