Architecture Vietnam

Collaboration with the Tản Mạn Kiến Trúc Group

I have been very pleased recently to collaborate with the Tản Mạn Kiến Trúc group to make two presentations about the new Vietnamese translation of my book “Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture”. This group of young scholars and architects has developed a strong organization to help raise the awareness of the value of heritage architecture in Vietnam. Their presentations and published materials are very professionally accomplished and they have developed a large following.

I want to thank Trương Trần Trung Hiếu of the Tản Mạn Kiến Trúc group for organizing, coordinating, and doing the translation of my presentations. Through his efforts, we met our goal to reach out to Vietnamese young people, who will now make a difference in the community for protection of this heritage architecture.

The Tản Mạn Kiến Trúc group website is at https://www.tanmankientruc.org/gioi-thieu and their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/tanmankientruc

Vietnamese-language Version of the book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture"

Alexandre Garel and I are proud to announce the publication of the Vietnamese translation of our book as “Kiến Trúc Hiện Đại Miền Nam Viet Nam”. It is available in Phương Nam bookstores in Vietnam as two large-format color versions: a hardcover version and a softcover version. We are very grateful to Ms. Candy Nguyen for translating the book for the Phương Nam Book Company, and to KTS Bùi Thúc Đạt for reviewing the book under tight time constraints, and Nghia Đinh for proofreading.

In my book “Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture”, there are 148 buildings located in Ho Chi Minh City alone, and of these, 11 have been demolished (that I know of) and 27 more buildings are in immediate danger of demolition. So this book stands as a record of the accomplishment of the Vietnamese people in developing this stunning architecture in the mid-twentieth century. We are now rapidly losing this legacy and identity. Therefore we hope this book is a catalyst for raising the awareness of the heritage values of this architecture.