Houses that Sugar Built
(Hardback)
Publishing Details
Houses that Sugar Built
By (Author) Gina Consing McAdam
By (author) Siobhn Doran
Oro Editions
Oro Editions
14th August 2024
United States
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Architecture: interior design
Physical Properties
Hardback
252
Width 235mm, Height 295mm
1782g
Description
Houses that Sugar Built explores the largely unknown architectural legacy to be found in the ancestral houses of Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Pampanga the three main sugar-producing provinces of the Philippines.
These grand residences have yet to receive international exposure. Nonetheless, they are important in two ways. Firstly, although easily classifiable in terms of architectural style, upon experiencing the buildings themselves there are almost always layers of additional influence. Secondly, this assured blending of styles reveals what we might call a Critical Ambition a desire on the part of the patrons who commissioned these residences to participate in an international architectural culture. Their relatively overlooked location did not stop the sugar barons responsible for these houses from undertaking a 20th-century form of the Grand Tour of European capitals, returning with a desire to bring the latest trends from Paris or Vienna to the provincial Philippines, or from partaking of the latest streamlined Moderne style from the US.
Beautifully photographed with over 200 pages of interiors that have rarely been seen by the public, Houses that Sugar Built is layered with intimate stories and individual house texts that transport us back to a time when these residences were in their heyday.
Author Bio
A communications consultant and writer, Gina Consing McAdam has been published in the UK and the Philippines, including books on corporate and family history. Her family roots are in the Philippine sugar industry. She has an MA in 20th Century English & American Literature from Newcastle University. Siobhn is a photographic artist with an architectural background. Her passion for the history of buildings and the people frequenting them has led to her completing a number of projects - several of them in book form. She undertakes commissions for architecture and interiors and has built up a body of photographic art.
