Malayan Classicism

Soon-Tzu Speechley is Lecturer in Urban and Cultural Heritage at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

• Introduction1. Columns and Capitals: Colonial Power and Malaya’s Capital CitiesBritish Classicism in Nineteenth-Century Penang and SingaporeCapital Ideas: Building Indo-Saracenic Kuala LumpurVariations on a Theme: The Spread of Imperial Capitalism in British Malaya2. A Classical Education: The Architecture of Schools in British MalayaSt Joseph’s Institution, Singapore The Tao Nan Chinese School, SingaporeThe Malay College, Kuala Kangsar,The Malay Free School at Jalan Sultan, SingaporeThe Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur3. Classical Monuments for the Modern Sultan: Royal Patronage of Classical Architecture in the Johor SultanateThe Istana Besar at Johor BahruThe Sultan Abu Bakar MosqueSultan Ibrahim’s Banqueting HallThe Muar Mosque4. Coarsened or Cosmopolitan? Re-reading Malaya’s Vernacular ClassicismA Diverse ProfessionAn Emerging Vernacular: Shophouses before the Twentieth Century Nascent EclecticismA Consolidated StyleNew Accents, New Languages: From Art Deco to Modernism5. Vestal Versions: Malaya’s Temples of CommerceEarly Warehouses and GodownsEuropean Banks and Trading HousesThe Maritime Gateways of EmpireThe China Building, Boat Quay6. Decline and Fall? The Supreme Court, Empress Place, and the Kallang AerodromeMonumental TranslationImperial Monuments, Colonial LabourModernity in Antiquity: The Materiality of the Supreme CourtTrial by Media: Critical Backlash to the Supreme Court in the Colonial PressGrand Designs: Ward’s Unrealised Civic DistrictTaking Flight: The Kallang AerodromeConclusion: Translations and TransitionsBibliographyIndex

Soon-Tzu Speechley has broken new ground with this detailed and insightful study of classical architecture on the Malay Peninsula. Considering the style in both its colonial and creolized forms, the book adds substantially to the history of classicism, including our understanding of the architecture of the colonial encounter more generally.