I needn’t wait for this dog’s dinner to finish cooking. I already know how this piece of architectural crap in Ho Chi Minh City is going to turn out. But it serves for now as an opportunity to show the differences between classical and modernist architecture in architectural history. The two pediments on the classical columns demonstrate that classical architecture is heavy and massive because classical buildings relied upon piling up brick and stone to support themselves. An encrustation of ornamentation is added to reduce the appearance of mass. The modernist features on the left side of the facade and at the roof trellis are abstract, simple, and light because they are essentially framing elements. Vietnamese modernist architecture uses the industrial materials of steel or reinforced concrete to create structural frames. This mixing of classical and modernist forms here demonstrates the fakery and dishonesty of using classical features in these times for which it is not appropriate.
