Architecture Vietnam Books is pleased to announce the publishing of the book "Poetic Significance: Sài Gòn Mid-Century Modernist Architecture" by Phạm Phú Vinh. This is the first book written about Vietnamese modernist architecture from the mid-century by a Vietnamese author. This book is published in English and is available internationally in most online bookstores such as Amazon. A Vietnamese-language version of this book will be published later this year in Vietnam.
This is a philosophical book with beautiful writing that presents the theory of how Vietnamese people embraced modernist architecture for their vernacular houses. It is illustrated with beautiful black and white architectural photography produced by Mr. Vinh. This book does not repeat the overview of Vietnamese modernist architecture provided in our book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture," but rather compliments our book by filling in the gap between modernism and Vietnamese traditional architecture. Phạm Phú Vinh shows that the Vietnamese people understood why they liked and revered Vietnamese traditional architecture for its definition of Vietnamese identity that they then extended to their new modernist vernacular architecture.
We are honored to have been given the opportunity to edit this book and publish it so the value of Vietnamese modernist architecture becomes known around the world.