In the current era of the climate crisis, the Fale becomes a provocation:  a  reminder that cultural wisdom is not nostalgic but generative [.. and ] challenge contemporary architecture to rethink its dependence on mechanical systems.

J Widodo

Read full review…

Gottfried Semper famously traced the origins of architecture to the woven “skin” of the building, identifying textile practice as a foundational act of construction. .. Had the Samoan fale been more widely known .., it would have offered an exemplary case in support of Semper’s proposition. In Samoa’s Iconic Fale, Higginson and Lair provide the first comprehensive and rigorously documented account of its construction, demonstrating with clarity and precision how architecture emerges from cultural practice.

Desmond Hui

Read full review…