Myanmar
Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) gained independence from British colonial rule in 1948. In 1962, General Ne Win violently seized power, with his new military government declaring a “Burmese way to socialism.” In the aftermath of the coup, Myanmar was cut off from the rest of the world for decades. The country now has a population of around 52 million inhabitants, divided into more than 135 ethnic groups. Post-independence ethnic conflict has been a constant challenge for the Myanmar state.
After the British withdrawal, important commissions in engineering and architecture initially went to British figures, including Raglan Squire and James Cubitt, and to Americans like Benjamin Polk and Oswald Nagler. Among the first Burmese architects to come back from studying abroad was Bilal Raschid, who had studied in Liverpool in the 1950s. An architecture faculty was founded at Yangon University in 1954, and the first five architects graduated from the program four years later. In 1963, the US-trained architect U Myo Myint Sein took over as dean of the Department of Architecture in Yangon; he had previously worked with Minoru Yamasaki in the United States. The new buildings completed in Myanmar at this time—libraries and cinemas, as well as public buildings for education and health care—reflected hopes for a new, emancipated society, however, these hopes would go unfulfilled.
After decades of military dictatorship, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won an absolute majority in parliament in 2015, in the country’s first-ever free elections. Suu Kyi became de facto head of government, although the constitution enforced by the military formally denied her office. Under her leadership, the country gradually began to open up and saw increased foreign investment, especially from Singapore and China. These developments are now rapidly changing the cityscape of the former capital city, Yangon. A series of initiatives are now attempting to protect British colonial architecture from demolition, but it is still early days in terms of the general awareness of postcolonial modernism.
Recently, the country has created headlines due to another military coup, which took place on February 1, 2021. Again, it seems, democratic development in Myanmar is literally under attack by the military. SB/MH/CH/EK
