Our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" focuses on the southern provinces of Vietnam. Modernist architecture became pervasive in Saigon and the south during the mid-century, and has continued to today. The primary thesis of the book states that the southern Vietnamese culture embraced modernism, unlike most other cultures in the world. This includes rural houses, so the vernacular architecture of the south is modernist, which itself is unusual in the world.
While there are several large modernist buildings in Hanoi and the north of Vietnam, modernist houses are relatively rare. For various reasons that we discuss in the book, modern architecture was not embraced by the population in the northern provinces. The vernacular architecture of dwellings in a typical northern village consists of traditional houses with tile roofs or neoclassical multi-story masonry houses. The traditional houses often have beautiful traditional carved wood trusses supporting the roof.
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