1st Edition
Digital Archetypes Adaptations of Early Temple Architecture in South and Southeast Asia
This unique book presents a broad multi-disciplinary examination of early temple architecture in Asia, written by two experts in digital reconstruction and the history and theory of Asian architecture. The authors examine the archetypes of Early Brahmanic, Hindu and Buddhist temple architecture from their origins in north western India to their subsequent spread and adaptation eastwards into Southeast Asia. While the epic monuments of Asia are well known, much less is known about the connections between their building traditions, especially the common themes and mutual influences in the early architecture of Java, Cambodia and Champa. While others have made significant historiographic connections between these temple building traditions, this book unravels, for the first time, the specifically compositional and architectural linkages along the trading routes of South and Southeast Asia. Through digital reconstruction and recovery of three dimensional temple forms, the authors have developed a digital dataset of early Indian antecedents, tested new technologies for the acquisition of built heritage and developed new methods for comparative analysis of built form geometry. Overall the book presents a novel approach to the study of heritage and representation within the framework of emerging digital techniques and methods.
Biography
Sambit Datta is Professor of Architecture, School of Built Environment, Curtin University, Australia. David Beynon is Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Deakin University, Australia.
’Datta and Beynon demonstrate the substantial benefits that digital methods can bring to the analysis of architectural and cultural history. Asian scholars will particularly welcome their new insights into old questions about the historical connections between the various South and Southeast Asian polities and the processes of Indianisation that are thought to have shaped Southeast Asian cultures.’ William Logan, Deakin University, Australia ’Digital Archetypes redefines the possible of what we can know about these monuments.’ Michael W. Meister, University of Pennsylvania, USA 'The book is likely to be of interest to historians of art and architecture in general, and to scholars of South and Southeast Asia in particular. Researchers and students interested in exploring digital techniques for studying architecture would also find this book helpful as an example of a systematic methodology of analysis.' South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies
