Alex and I are pleased that our book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture: Mid-Century Modernism" is getting closer to publication. We are blessed with the graphic design talent of Mads Monsen in laying out the book design for the international version. With his layout, we now know that there are too many pages to economically print, so we have made some tough decisions to delete a few of the projects. The Ngọc Mỹ Hotel is one of them.
This small four-story hotel (now an apartment building) at Two Trần Ngọc Diện Street in the Thảo Điền Ward of District Two is an abstract expression of function in its composition. While the bathrooms are the plain wall areas, the balconies cantilever out with large openings into the rooms.
The beams showing under the roof plane and each of the balconies express the structure. Planters on the terraces are lifted up from the balcony floors to become sculptural elements. You can see by the high-rise luxury housing in the background that architectural heritage like this is threatened with demolition.
This beautiful architectural photography is copyrighted by Alexandre Garel 2019.
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