Book excerpt: Featuring over 250 photographs and insightful commentary, this topical interior design book will add a uniquely Asian-Pacific element to your home. The Philippines is home to a new generation of craftsmen, including furniture makers, artists, sculptors, and weavers. They specialize in taking the indigenous materials of the country--pina, abaca, capiz shell, bamboo, rattan, to name a few--and producing contemporary items that would be as at home in a New York loft as on a tropical verandah. Harnessing both Asian- and Latin-inspired style and modern techniques, they produce a cornucopia of fine contemporary furniture and "authentic" furnishing items. In this sourcebook of decorating and shopping ideas, these objects are presented within metropolitan and rural present-day interiors. From furniture and furnishings to table settings and lighting, all the homes, many never photographed before, are accented with artifacts in modern designs. Tropical Interiors shows how Philippine style is clearly now a global phenomenon and can be applied to homes worldwide.