Jacques Dumarcay

Architecture and Its Models in South-east Asia Jacques Dumarcay

This study of the development of architecture and the impact of architectural models on this evolution, draws its early examples primarily from surviving Hindu-Buddhist monuments in Cambodia and Java. Dumarcay argues that, despite the fact that individual physical locations may merit innovation, new construction nevertheless tends to be constrained by pre-existing architectural models held within collective conscience of a given culture. This tendency may be further strengthened when an insecure regime seeks to employ architectural monuments to aggrandize its political position. A break from the models of the past - and thus true innovation - may develop only when a master builder has sufficient confidence in his own artistic vision within a context that allows him to express it.