Visual resources: Websites & others

A portal that links and indexes other sites. We have not used this extensively, so we cannot verify its authority, relevance and credibility. However, there are some interesting links to Le Corbusier & Frank Gehry.

A relatively old resource, hence links may be broken

Needs no introduction, but please ask permission if you intend to use any image.

Features three sets of images: Algiers postcards, Algiers buildings: religious and Algiers buildings: public institutions. Wonderful given that it's quite difficult to obtain pictures of Algeria in Asia.

There are several visual collections under the Harvard Libraries; the most relevant to architectural students being the Loeb Library (Harvard Design School), Houghton Library (Printing and Graphic Arts department), Harvard Fine Arts Library Digital Images and Slides Collections, Harvard Fine Arts Library Special Collection, Harvard-Yenching Library [China archival images], and the Harvard Film Archive.

US-centric (naturally). Features two collections: historic newspapers and historic photos.

This is a personal site of this Japanese architect who is clearly passionate about architecture and monuments in South Asia. The images were all taken [and copyright] by Takeo Kamiya. Original text is in Japanese, and the English text is translated by his friends/associates.

This is the visual online public access catalog to the 35mm slide collection of the Architecture Visual Resources Library (AVRL) at the University of California at Berkeley. The collection numbers over 250,000 slides and 20,000 photographs. Images dating back to 1920s and earlier are probably in public domain and can be used for personal use only.

There are maps, images, films, audio and sounds resources, drawn from the libraries’ collections and organised by countries in East Asia including Taiwan. Note especially the Special Collections as they contain ephermeral and peripheral materials on themes the curators have chosen.

A wide variety of formats and types of moving images are available from this invaluable archive. The site recommends VLC Media Player. Note that the clips are free for viewing but if you want to use them for purposes other than personal research, read their FAQ, observe the creative commons etiquette or ask for permission.

Archive of selected and noteworthy Internet pages from 1996. Some were voluntary contributions while some were trawled by crawlers. Invaluable if you are searching for pages in the early days of the WWW.

This is a huge database of movie information, with HQ in Seattle, USA which started in late 1990 with a series of scripts in USENET. It is now an indispensable source of movie information, including Asian films.

Probably everyone’s favourite site! There’s a few noteworthy videos for folks looking for historical films on Malaya and the Straits Settlements (i.e. Singapore, Penang and Malacca), travel documentaries and movies made during the golden age of cinema in Asia.