Oswald Nagler in Rangoon

As Kögel, curator of Chinese-Architects.com and one of the directors of Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism, explains on the SEAM-Encounters website, Nagler and his wife moved to Rangoon following his graduation from Harvard GSD in 1957 but "were housed in a colonial building unsuited for the tropical climatic condition." In response, "they decided to build a house that responded better to the environment," that was inspired by local buildings, and that also used local craftsmen. "Through its radical reduction to only those elements essential that mitigated the climate," Kögel asserts, Nagler's first house "became a statement."