Spine Architects founder Stephen Zaw Moe Shwe examines a design in his drawing room at his home in Yangon. Pic: Aung Tun Win

STEPHEN Zaw Moe Shwe isn’t in it for the money. Trained at some of the United States’ best colleges, the award-winning architect returned to Myanmar in 2003 after a long spell abroad because he wanted to give something back to his homeland.

Working out of his home in Mayangone township, the founder of Spine Architects turns out a wide range of designs from his modern, pale-grey drawing room. His most recent work was for a monastery in Hmaw Bi.

“I design religious places free of charge,” Stephen Zaw Moe Shwe said. “I’m also ready to contribute what skills I’ve got to public places like schools – where people haven’t got a lot of money to pay for designs – but that will be useful places for the public.”

While his life in Yangon is comfortable, it is the satisfaction of knowing his own work was in demand and would be appreciated here that drew him back to Myanmar after a decade and a half working in the US.

Eighteen years ago, after one-and-a-half years at the Yangon Institute of Technology, Stephen Zaw Moe Shwe packed his bags and, like many before him from all corners of the world, set off for America.

At that time, being an architect was not high on his list of ambitions although he says he always harboured an interest in constructing buildings.

“Back then, Myanmar people saw architects only as decorators. And students who chose architecture at the Yangon Institute of Technology were supposed to be the ones with low grades in their first year of study – or so I thought.”
He wasn’t long in the US before his thinking changed.

Stephen went on to obtain a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of California in Berkeley, and then a Master of Architecture from Columbia University in New York. He also picked up prominent design prizes, including the SOM Foundation National Architecture Fellowship award.

Student life and pursuing a career in the US was tough, however, and he had to struggle much more than he did in Myanmar, Stephen recalled.

“I led a fairly luxurious life in Yangon, so when I first arrived in the US I felt that I needed to try hard. The lifestyle there was really different and in the first year or two I was homesick a lot,” he said.

The student life, language, culture, work habits and learning style were all different from those of Myanmar and Stephen found himself being transformed.
“Actually, it was really part of coping with the studies. The whole year’s effort was important,” he said.

While in school, he worked part-time as an architect. Combining his education with practical work experience instilled the traits of a mature architect that would become so important as he launched his professional career immediately after graduation.

Stephen oversaw the design and construction of numerous residential and commercial projects throughout the United States. But a desire to return to his homeland and see his work materialise there persisted despite his good earnings and comfortable life.

“Even if I wasn’t going to settle down in Myanmar, at least I wanted to contribute a piece of architecture to my home country,” he said.

So, three years ago he returned. Together with his wife Amelie Chai – herself a Harvard-graduate architect – Stephen set up Spine Architects, which has since designed more than 60 Myanmar projects.

“If money was my first priority, I would never have come back here,” he said. “In the US, architects receive much higher fees than in Myanmar. Here, people are still learning to appreciate the profession and, in fact, real estate brokers charge more than we do.

“But I want to create world class architecture in Myanmar, and I want to see Myanmar people using the buildings I’ve designed.”

Coming up with a design, he said, was like composing a song.

“Once we have created it, it will always exit. But it’s not complete as just a design on paper or on a computer screen. It’s once the designs have been built and people decide they like them that our aims and satisfaction as architects is realised,” he said.

“The dream of an architect is to see people really happy in a building he or she has designed.”