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The architect who lived in our hotel

D Eastern Hotel is the old Eastern Hotel, 東方酒店, on what was Brewster Road, Ipoh. It was designed before the Second World War by the Danish architect B.M. Iversen, and in 1946 Iversen himself lived here and ran his practice from his suite. It is, as far as we know, the only hotel he designed in Ipoh that still welcomes guests.

B.M. Iversen in a light suit outside his office, beside a sign reading 'B.M. Iversen, Architect, Penang & Ipoh'
B.M. Iversen outside his office: "B.M. Iversen, Architect, Penang & Ipoh". Iversen family archive, from Rollitt (2015).

A Dane in the tin town

Berthel Michael Iversen was born in Copenhagen in 1906 and trained at the Royal Academy there. In 1928 he followed his brother to Malaya, and from Ipoh, then the rich capital of the tin-mining Kinta Valley, he went on to design hundreds of buildings: cinemas for the Shaw Brothers, banks, clubs, schools, shophouses and homes.

His early buildings are white and streamlined, often described as Art Deco. After the war they became boldly modern, and he is now counted among Southeast Asia's most important modernists. The Society of Architectural Historians puts it simply: "Little known outside of South East Asia, for decades he was one of the most important architects in the region."

1946: the year Iversen lived at the Eastern Hotel

On 15 March 1946, Iversen flew back to Malaya in uniform, with the rank of Major, by way of Australia, the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, where he spent a night at the Raffles Hotel. When he finally reached Ipoh on a British Army lorry and a northbound train, he found that his old office had been burnt down.

So he moved into the three-storey Eastern Hotel on Brewster Road, a building he had designed before the war for his client Hoo Soo Wan. He used the front room of his hotel suite as the office, shared with his draftsmen, and slept on a camp bed in the back room. Within days his cook, a former draftsman and the family's old amah had found him there, and new work was coming in. One of the first things he bought was a gramophone and some records, so there would be music in the hotel while he rebuilt his practice.

That story is told, with the photograph of the hotel above our homepage, in Iversen: Architect of Ipoh and Modern Malaya, the book his daughter Ruth Iversen Rollitt wrote from his papers. Brewster Road is today's Jalan Sultan Idris Shah, and the building, since renovated, is still a hotel.

The Eastern Hotel and Hoo Soo Wan Building on Brewster Road, Ipoh, with vintage cars outside
The Eastern Hotel, 東方酒店, Brewster Road, Ipoh, where Iversen had a temporary office in 1946. From Rollitt (2015).

Iversen's life in brief

  1. 1906Born in Copenhagen, the youngest of seven children, and named after the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.
  2. Before 1928Graduates in architecture from the Royal Academy in Copenhagen.
  3. 1928Sails for Malaya, persuaded by his older brother Werner, a planter there since 1918.
  4. 1932Designs the Lam Look Ing building in Ipoh, a white, streamlined landmark that once held the Celestial Hotel.
  5. 1936Founds Iversen, van Sitteren & Partners in Ipoh, later with offices in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
  6. Pre-warDesigns the Eastern Hotel on Brewster Road for his client Hoo Soo Wan: the building you stay in today.
  7. 1939Designs the Jubilee Park entrance and the Capitol Cinema for the Shaw Brothers, two of scores of cinemas he drew.
  8. 1946Returns after the war, finds his office burnt down and moves into the Eastern Hotel, running his practice from his suite.
  9. 1950Wins the competition for Federal House in Kuala Lumpur, first among 15 architects.
  10. 1966Retires, leaving the firm to his son Per and his Chinese partners.
  11. 1976Dies in Copenhagen, aged 70. His firm continues today as Pakatan Akitek in Kuala Lumpur.

Why European travellers come to Ipoh for him

Walk Iversen's Ipoh from our door

The hotel today: one Ipoh

We carry the building's spirit forward: the unhurried pace, the morning kopi, the old rituals of a town where Malay, Chinese and Indian life have always shared the same streets. Our team is all three, and we see every one of us, and every guest, simply as Ipoh.

Stay in Iversen's hotel See the rooms →

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