Architecture Vietnam

An Epic Loss of Vietnamese Identity and Heritage

The former BATA Shoe Factory at 419 or 430 Lê Hồng Phong Street in District Ten is being demolished as I post this.

This is a sad day for me personally because this building was my favorite heritage modernist building, and Alexandre Garel’s beautiful photo of this building illustrated the cover of my book about Vietnamese modernist architecture. This is a sad day for Vietnam too, since it has again lost an important piece of its identity and heritage.

It was an industrial building, but nevertheless care and talent were expended by Vietnamese architects in designing a building that represented Vietnamese modernist architecture and identity at the mid-century. But being an industrial building, we usually expect that they have a limited life as industrial needs change. Thus they are subject to demolition.

However, in this age of global warming where carbon byproducts create conditions for that warming, it is important to limit further carbon emissions. One of the best ways to do this is to save the results of past carbon use so new carbon emissions can be limited. Buildings like the BATA factory represent ‘embodied carbon’ that can be reused in order to save the emissions necessary to build a new building. The BATA factory could have been easily adapted for use as a school or many other uses.

The BATA factory building is now lost as an important marker of Vietnamese identity and heritage, and could have been saved through its adaptive reuse.

An article comparing Vietnamese modernist architecture with other decolonized countries

I was commissioned by the Vietnamese Architects Association to write a scholarly article for their magazine,  Tạp chí Kiến trúc, số 8-2024. I chose to write a comparison of Vietnamese modernist architecture, from the mid-century after independence, with architecture around the global south after decolonization. This was based upon the results of the “Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence” exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London over the summer of 2024.

While much of the modernist architecture in decolonized global south countries involved foreign architects, Vietnamese modernist architecture was entirely produced by Vietnamese architects and people. The Vietnamese architects and the people succeeded in developing a tropical modernist architecture that reflects Vietnamese identity. Now they must succeed in protecting this amazing heritage so that memory of identity provides a basis for the future.

Thank you to KTS Nguyễn Ngọc Sơn of the University of Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City for inviting me to write this article.

The publication is in Vietnamese, and you can find it here:  https://www.tapchikientruc.com.vn/chuyen-muc/su-khac-biet-cua-viet-nam-so-voi-kien-truc-hien-dai-toan-cau-thoi-ky-hau-thuoc-dia.html

My original English version can be found here:  https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/y28lj1jw6qovtupxutfzn/VAA-Article-in-English.pdf?rlkey=34yg9g0h6473et69qsvsyp6re&dl=0

 

The Heritage of the Saigon School of Architecture

On 30 November 2024, KTS Nguyễn Ngọc Sơn presented a detailed outline of the history of the Saigon School of Architecture, 1944-1976, as well a biography of the life of architect and educator Nguyễn Quang Nhạc. The audience at IDECAF for this event included family members of KTS Nhạc and many former students and teachers from the school.

The original department of architecture of the Fine Arts College in Hanoi was relocated to Da Lat during the Japanese Occupation of World War II. The period of its successor, the Saigon School of Architecture (under various names), includes the times in Da Lat beginning in 1944 and post war until 1950, when the school was relocated to Saigon. In 1976, it became the University of Architecture of Ho Chi Minh City at the same location at 196 Pasteur Street in District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Saigon School of Architecture was the center for development of Vietnamese modernist architecture that reflected Vietnamese identity. Vietnamese architect Nguyễn Quang Nhạc is regarded as one of the foremost architects of the mid-century in southern Vietnam in the mid-century as well as the foremost educator as Director of the Saigon School of Architecture for several years.

Over several years KTS Sơn carried out detailed and extensive research to compile this history and biography, including several artifacts belonging to KTS Nhạc. KTS Sơn should be commended for his amazing achievement. We should all look forward to seeing the results of this research someday in the form of a book or books.