Burmese Teak Farmhouses: Inside Efforts to Preserve a Centuries-Long Building Tradition

Myanmar’s traditional teak farmhouses, included on the 2020 World Monuments Watch, embody the country’s unique vernacular building traditions. 

However, in recent years modern building materials, the rising price of teak, and political turmoil have caused farmhouses to disappear at rapid rates. Limited research has been done on the mechanisms driving them, and little documentation of the disappearing farmhouses exists.

Join us for an inside look into ongoing efforts to fill this gap with World Monuments Fund Regional Director Jeff Allen, Project Manager Waraporn Suwatchotikul, and architect U Aung Soe Myint. Diving into ongoing work to document Burmese teak farmhouses’ architectural typology, symbolism, and usage, this conversation will explore how documentation can help us a consider the cultural values of this vernacular building tradition in a new light.