Sino-Portuguese Houses

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Sino-Portuguese Houses

History in Architecture, in the Streets of Phuket

Beaches are great, but Phuket has more to offer, and a walking tour of the old sections of town give us a peak into the very different world of Phuket s past

A walk down Thalang Road in the late after-noon light is a journey into the past. Every few metres you walk beneath arches looming over the sidewalk, and you can imagine you’ve been transported to l8th century Lisbon or Verona. The street has a distinctly European feel to it. But closer inspection will reveal a very different cultural influence. You’ll see Chinese writing above some of the doors -sometimes vivid, as though freshly painted, but more often than not the writing is faded with age and difficult to decipher.

It’s hard to provide a blanket char-acterization of this style of architecture but, in general terms, it’s fair to say that while the columns, roofs and walls are European in design, with flamboyant Corinthian, Ionic and Doric embellish-ments, doors and windows display distinctly Chinese characteristics with carved teak louvers and inlaid doors. The merchants’ houses in the centre of Phuket traditionally have Chinese writing above or just inside the en-trance, giving the family name and occasionally the names of the family gods. Almost all the houses have a small altar in a place of prominence, many displaying memorials to family members since passed on Both man-sions and townhouses share other similarities. The centre of the house is usually open to the elements, allowing the breeze to circulate within.

In some cases this has been transformed into a covered skylight that still manages to bring sunlight and a sense of space into an otherwise fairly dark abode But with the darkness and gloom comes the cool. Inside most Sino-Portuguese houses the air is usually five to ten degrees cooler than the blanket of tropical heat on the outside.

With a bit of imagina-tion you can see how the front archways of these two-storey dwell-ings must have covered once the sidewalks on both sides of the road. Some of them still remain, but most have been demolished or ce-mented in and now serve either as private garages for cars and motorcy-cles or extensions for a variety of shops. Perhaps, too, the people have changed. There’s a greater demand for individual privacy and less willing-ness to socialize and live in a commu-nal atmosphere. But, despite the changes, Thalang Road offers a glimpse at the early Chinese middle class.

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