Mark Jarzombek, “Angkor, Global Politics, and the Urbanization of Southeast Asia in the Ninth Century”

Amid escalating trade between India and China, between 500 and 800 CE Southeast Asia coalesced rapidly from a group of village cultures into competing states. This lecture will consider these changes and focus on Angkor, the most extreme city-making experiment in Asia before 800. Widely known as the location of the temple Angkor Wat, the city was the subject of seven or more urban plans as it rose in population to over a million, becoming the world’s third largest city by 1100. How was Angkor designed, and what happened to it? Mark Jarzombek is professor in the history and theory of architecture and assistant dean of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. His books include A Global History of Architecture (Wiley Press, 2006) and Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective (forthcoming, Wiley Press, 2013).

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