Village Housing in the Tropics with special reference to West Africa
London Lund Humphries [1947] 1953
134pp illustrated with b/w plates and line ills. long 8vo. Decorated wrappers. Defines the issues surrounding new build houses for tropical areas covering house design, layout of village, services and landscape conservation and tree planting. Hard to find. Written with colonial overtones and with the end papers showing the Colonies as they then were, the book itself, written whilst Fry had a posting in West Africa, was a key publication in considering the role of architects and planners in Africa. It adopts a blanket approach to housing in tropical environments but was the start of the duos interest in the subject and by 1956 they had revised their view to be more locally relevant across the tropical world and they promoted distinctiveness by culture and country. Their shift in views was reflected in a second book on housing in the tropics and humid zones.