Architecture and Urbanism in the French Empire in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, 1643-1830

FAIN: FEL-262181-19

Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6 Canada)

Research leading to publication of a book and open access website about French colonial architecture and urbanism in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from 1643 to 1830.

This project will be the first comprehensive study of the architecture and urbanism of the early Modern French Empire in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the first foundation in Madagascar in 1643 to the end of the Bourbon Restoration in 1830. By examining and comparing French architecture and urbanism in India, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands, and the French missionary and commercial centres in modern Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, this project (1) will challenge the common misconception that early Modern French architecture in the Indian and Pacific Ocean region was simply equivalent to that of other European powers in Asia; (2) demonstrate that French architectural activities in the oceanic Eastern and Western hemispheres were closely interrelated, even if different in many ways; and (3) show how early Modern French colonial architecture anticipated aspects of the built environment of France’s Modern empire.

Associated Products

Colonial Architecture Project (Web Resource)
Title: Colonial Architecture Project
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Author: Erica Chan
Author: Molly-Claire Gillett
Author: Peta Gillyatt Bailey
Author: Brie Gascho
Abstract: With 13,000 new pictures following the research trip funded by this NEH grant, this 18,000-picture strong website includes photographs, facts, further reading, and timelines regarding thousands of buildings in the colonial world on five continents. It is completely open access and has already been piloted in a grade school curriculum in Canada.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.colonialarchitectureproject.org
Primary URL Description: searchable database of 18,000-plus images of colonial buildings from around the world with facts, keywords, timelines, and (soon) annotated bibliographies for future research.

The Architecture of Empire: France in India and Southeast Asia, 1664-1962 (Book)
Title: The Architecture of Empire: France in India and Southeast Asia, 1664-1962
Author: Gauvin Alexander Bailey
Abstract: The first comprehensive study of French colonial architecture in South and Southeast Asia. Art history, architecture Though most monumental buildings of France’s global empire – such as the famous Saigon and Hanoi Opera Houses – were built in South and Southeast Asia, much of this architecture, and the history of who built it and how, has been overlooked. The Architecture of Empire considers the large-scale public architecture associated with French imperialism in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century India, Siam, and Vietnam, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century Indochina, the largest colony France ever administered in Asia. Offering a sweeping panorama of the buildings of France’s colonial project, this is the first study to encompass the architecture of both the ancien régime and modern empires, from the founding of the French trading company in the seventeenth century to the independence and nationalist movements of the mid-twentieth century. Gauvin Alexander Bailey places particular emphasis on the human factor: the people who commissioned, built, and lived in these buildings. Almost all of these architects, both Europeans and non-Europeans, have remained unknown beyond – at best – their surnames. Through extensive archival research, this book reconstructs their lives, providing vital background for the buildings themselves. Much more than in the French empire of the Western Hemisphere, the buildings in this book adapt to indigenous styles, regardless of whether they were designed and built by European or non-European architects. The Architecture of Empire provides a unique, comprehensive study of structures that rank among the most fascinating examples of intercultural exchange in the history of global empires.
Year: 2022
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 0228011426
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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