Architecture Vietnam

The Rounded Edges of architecture in Vietnam

Professor Hazel Hanh of Seattle University wrote and published a very interesting academic article entitled “Rounded Edges: Modernism and Architectural Dialogue in Ho Chi Minh City”. You can download this paper here . In addition to recognising the diversity of architecture in Ho Chi Minh City, it focuses on the feature of rounded corners on buildings in Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh. This technique of design provides unity amongst the various styles of architecture in these cities and shows how the population recognised and used the value of this technique.

Heritage Conservation for Vietnamese Modernist Architecture

 

Vietnamese modernist architecture of the mid-twentieth-century is disappearing rapidly in the twenty-first century. I think we can agree on the historical, social, and aesthetic values of these heritage structures. In addition, a strong argument can also be made that the richness of Ho Chi Minh City’s urban environment projects a strong identity that attracts investment and tourism. We need to work together to find ways to protect these historic structures and the Vietnamese identity that they represent.

The video available at the link below provides the context and details of the opportunities for those with vision and money to adapt these heritage structures for new uses or to conserve them.

https://youtu.be/AXkG_plGrb4

This presentation by architect Mel Schenck in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was originally developed for presentation to the design studio of Professor Erik L’Heureux in the Department of Architecture of the National University of Singapore, delivered online on 27 January 2022.

This episode is the second of two episodes comprising that presentation, with this one focusing on reuse and conservation of these historical structures from the mid-twentieth-century, and the first episode focusing on adaptation to the tropical climate.

Vietnamese Modernist Architecture in the Tropical Climate

 

In addition to its expression of Vietnamese identity in the Industrial Age vocabulary of modernism, southern Vietnamese modernist architecture of the mid-twentieth-century responded in innovative ways to resist the impacts of the tropical climate while enhancing the experience of natural phenomena in the environment. The video available at the link below provides the context and details of the methods used in Vietnamese modernist architecture to accomplish these objectives.

https://youtu.be/CLindLgPr_Q

This presentation by architect Mel Schenck in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was originally developed for presentation to the design studio of Professor Erik L’Heureux in the Department of Architecture of the National University of Singapore, delivered online on 27 January 2022.

This episode is the first of two episodes comprising that presentation, with this one focusing on adaptation to the tropical climate, and the second on reuse and conservation of these historical structures from the mid-twentieth-century.

Vietnamese Information-Age Architecture

In November 2020, Mel delivered a lecture on the Information Age and its impact on architecture at the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The first half of the lecture focused on the origins and change of reality we are all facing in the Information Age, while the second half showed the new architecture arising out of this new age, especially here in Vietnam.

Mel edited the Facebook video that the American Center produced of this lecture, and he invites you to view it now on his “Architecture Vietnam” YouTube channel. Here is a link to it:  https://youtu.be/ycLaCleUWVY

There are now several new videos in Mel’s YouTube channel “Architecture Vietnam” that deal with modernism and Vietnamese modernist architecture. But this particular video on the new architecture of the Information Age is most important because it points us to our holistic future and the role Vietnamese architects are playing to lead the world in this new architecture.

The Modern Words

Last April 2021, we posted about the words Modernity, Modern, Modernism, and Modernist, and gave a link to a video on Facebook of Mel’s presentation at the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City on 14 October 2020. The focus on modernity and modernism in that presentation provided the context for the following two presentations on Vietnamese modernist architecture as well as contemporary Vietnamese Information Age architecture.

We have updated the video a bit to delete the introductions and posted it on Mel’s “Architecture Vietnam” YouTube channel. You can find the new video at this link:  https://youtu.be/kIpaN6r5-Sg

Mid-twentieth-century modernist art and architecture as well as contemporary modernist art forms express the Industrial Age. When studying these art forms, it is important to understand the contexts in which modernist arts and architecture were developed. The four “modern” words are essential for understanding these contexts.

These words do not mean the same thing, but they are all related to each other, nesting in each other from modernist on up through to modernity.

Modernist art and architecture derives from the philosophical movement of modernism, which in turn is prominent amongst modern Ideas that arose during the era of modernity. Modernity describes the philosophical, scientific, social, political, and economic conditions that allowed modern ideas, beginning about 500 years ago in the European Renaissance.

A Perceptive Book Review of "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture"

Vietnamese architect Bùi Thúc Đạt has published a wonderful review of our book, and he captures the essence of the book in his review. You can find his original review in Vietnamese language in the Vietnamese Modernist Architecture group on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/VietnameseModernistArchitecture/posts/4052198078190848/

 

Here is a rough translation from Google Translate into English language of his review:

Book Review

by Bùi Thúc Đạt

Architecture books published in Vietnam are mostly picture books with brief explanations or research books on Vietnamese traditional architecture, but Mel Schenck's book is an exception. Not only writing about modern Vietnamese architecture, but moreover, the author has clarified an architectural style that has been created and developed by generations of talented Vietnamese architects from 1954 to 1975, modern architecture in southern Vietnam.

The book is written in English with the title "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture- Mid-century Vernacular Modernism". Instead of focusing on introducing and describing works, the author approaches the problem by stringing together historical bases and architectural forms to identify and clarify Southern Modernism in Vietnam.

The content of the book can be divided into 3 main parts including historical origins, architectural features and modernism in indigenous architecture.

The first part of the book deals with the historical context, formation and factors affecting modern Vietnamese architecture. In this section, the author discusses the traditional architecture of Vietnam, the colonial architecture brought and recreated by the French in Vietnam as well as the architectural trends in the world at that time and their impact on the world. Modern Vietnamese architecture. In particular, the author has spent an important part referring to the early Modernist Architecture period in Vietnam - the period of the last French architects in Vietnam - such as architect Paul Veysseyre, Architect Arthur Kruze, ... and the first class of Vietnamese architects - such as Architect Nguyen Van Ninh, Architect Truong Ngo Phu, Architect Huynh Tan Phat, ... collaborated on architectural projects. Following that is the transformation of architecture in Vietnam from Art Deco-style buildings to the first modernist works.

The second part accounts for two-thirds of the book and is also the most important part, referring to the unique characteristics of modern South Vietnamese architecture. The opening is the image of the golden age of modern Southern architecture with the appearance of a generation of talented Vietnamese architects such as Architect Nguyen Van Hoa, Architect Vu Ba Dinh, Architect Pham Van Thang, Architect Nguyen Quang Nhac, Architect To Cong Van, Architect Ngo Viet Thu,... In this section, modern architectural works were selected from many typical areas of South Vietnam at that time such as Saigon, Da Lat, Quy Nhon , the Mekong Delta,... and classified by the author according to the characteristics of modern Southern Vietnamese architectural style. The modern architecture of South Vietnam in the period 1954-1975 is rarely deepened and presented thoroughly in books on Fine Arts & Architecture published in Vietnam, so the author Mel Schenck's identification and digging depth and presentation of modern southern architecture through classification method based on architectural characteristics, is a special thing.

The last part of the book deals with indigenous houses throughout South Vietnam. What is interesting here is that the sphere of influence of modernism extended from the big cities to the countryside, where it is often considered difficult to open up to new Architectural-Arts movements. According to the author, this has never happened anywhere in the world, even in the United States, France or Japan, etc., which have many modernist monuments.

The most unfortunate thing is that most of the works in the book have been or are planned to be demolished. It is clear that looking at Modern Architecture in Southern Vietnam, we admire the creativity and intelligence of generations of Vietnamese architects, but we also cannot help but regret the fate of modern architecture in Southern Vietnam when fall into the fracturing of postwar politics and culture. However, from the books of Mel Schenck or Thierry Delfosse,... we still have hope that the value of modernist architecture in South Vietnam will be properly recognized as well as preserved with its role as a heritage of architecture and art of the Vietnamese people.

Modernity, Modernism, Modern, Modernist

Southern Vietnamese modernist architecture was developed in the mid-twentieth century by Vietnamese architects responding to the particular conditions of modernity applicable in southern Vietnam. They used the principles of modernism developed in the Industrial Age to inform how the vocabulary of Vietnamese modernist architecture could be applied to help Vietnam become a modern country, solve housing shortages, and create a Vietnamese vernacular architecture expressing Vietnamese identity. All of these 'm-words’: modernity, modernism, modern, and modernist, are important in explaining and presenting southern Vietnamese modernist architecture, or any modern architecture. In our book Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture, we define these words and how they apply to the Vietnamese context in the section entitled "Modernity and Modernism" on pages 21-23 of the Vietnam edition.

There is another opportunity to understand these words in a presentation that Mel gave at the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City on 14 October 2020. This presentation was live-streamed on Facebook at the time and is available as the video below. Since the presentation was live-streamed, it starts with a static introduction graphic for the first 4 minutes (so you don’t realize you are actually watching a video), the introduction of the program at about 4:15, and then the presentation begins at 7:50. Unfortunately, the sound level was too low for a few minutes, becoming normal around 10:00. The projectionist was also slow in advancing the slides shown in the video, so they don’t always match what I was talking about. Nevertheless, this video could be helpful to you in clearing up the confusion surrounding these 'm-words'.

 

 

"Poetic Significance: Sài Gòn Mid-Century Modernist Architecture"

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.

Saigon Portrait of a City

Alexandre Garel has followed up the beautiful modernist architectural photography featured in our book, "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" by publishing a full-color photo book entitled "Saigon Portrait of a City." In this large-format book, Alexandre presents the scope of the megacity of Saigon, with Vietnamese architecture representing all of the periods of architecture that makes Ho Chi Minh City such a rich environment. His passion for this city really stands out in this luxurious book. Commentary on the city as well as the photo captions were written by the eminent historian Tim Doling. You can buy signed copies of this beautiful photo book on Alexandre’s website: https://www.alexandregarel.com/saigon-portrait-of-a-city

Errata Already

Given my inability to find direct evidence available in Vietnam about mid-century modernist architecture, I am not surprised that errors have already surfaced in our book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture." I am sure we will find more errors later, but here are three important ones known already:

1. On page 327 of the Vietnam edition of the book, the French-Vietnamese architect for the 95 Pasteur Street apartment building was listed as René Nguyễn Khắc Schéou, as cited in other works about Vietnamese modernism. However, Nghia Nguyen and Thanh Nguyen of the Facebook Vietnamese Modernist Architecture group have both determined, from evidence in the National Archives, that KTS Hoàng Hùng had designed this building.

2. On page 208 of the book, we listed Ngô Viết Thụ as the design architect for the University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Thanh Nguyen found paper evidence that a team of five Vietnamese architects assisted with the design. Although unnamed, three of the architects have been identified as Ngô Viết Thụ, Bùi Quang Hanh and possibly Lê Văn Lắm.

3. On page 162, the prominent Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann is named as the designer of the Embassy for Cambodia at what is now 185 Cách Mạng Tháng Tám Street. Nguyễn Ngọc Sơn has now found significant evidence that Vietnamese architect Hoàng Hùng was responsible for this design.

The best news here is that Vietnamese researchers are now combing through the National Archives and other sources to prove the facts of the development of mid-century Vietnamese modernist architecture.

Defining Modernist Architecture

Architects and aficionados of modernist architecture may wonder why we need to define modernist architecture early in our book, since everybody knows what it is, right? We have found that there is plenty of disagreement about modernist architecture amongst architects, especially regarding the International Style. Most importantly, non-architects often do not know at all what modernist architecture is, confusing it with modern architecture or classical architecture.

Therefore our book, "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture," contains a chapter defining global modernist architecture. We discuss this up first in the book so that when we get to the chapter defining Vietnamese modernist architecture, the basis is set to compare them and show the differences.

Photo: Rietveld-Schröder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1924

Photo source: Luctor, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rietveld-Schröderhuis.jpg, public domain

Review of "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture"

Ed Haysom, an Australian architect and part-time resident of Vietnam for many years, has written many articles in the past about Vietnamese architecture and urban planning. Now he has written a good review of "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" for publication in Australia. With his permission, we present it below:

 

This is an important book. 

It draws attention to a little discussed part of Saigon’’s history - its modernist buildings 

The book is a comprehensive documentation of these buildings and demonstrates clearly why these buildings are important texturally and culturally to Ho Chi Minh City and to the country. Many of them are now at risk because they are perceived as “old” but not “that old” - that in between period when people cannot see their value. 

The evolution of this modernism in Vietnam is fascinatingly explained by Mel Schenck. Modernist architecture took root in France through the work of Le Corbusier. Its growth, like many other art forms in the 20th century was catalysed by technology, the development of the elevator and electric lighting. 

Modernism reached Vietnam at a time of great economic growth and its elements were easily understood and constructed. Modernism relied less on craftsmanship and more on the assembly of components. The climatic lessons learned by the previous generation of architects in Vietnam were passed on to the 20th century practitioners who were able to design buildings with double skins and sunshading. The Vietnamese architects were quick to adapt modernism to their own ends and express Vietnamese aspirations and culture while still working within budget constraints and deadlines 

These modernist buildings illustrated in the book with their bris soleil have made an enormous contribution to the city. 

In the 19th Century an architect would not be able to design a building without adding texture to the exterior because both the market and the clients expected it. Building texture comes from the building’s form and the expression of that form using shadows and patterns that not only give relief to the building but also allowing the building form to subtly change during the day. 

As Mel Schenck describes and Alexandre Garel illustrates, Ho Chi Minh City is full of buildings that are fine examples of this. The texture of these older buildings took the form of balconies and self- shading devices designed to keep the sun off the facade of the building. This provided a rich texture and delivered an attractive cityscape. Their successors with their imported curtain walls and heavy reliance on air conditioning are inferior to these buildings. The net result is building blandness as the texture is removed and only the rectangular building form remains 

There could almost be a companion volume to this - much slimmer - made available to HCMC’s political leaders. Slimmer because they will not read - although they should - this comprehensive volume 

It also should be on the bookshelf of any architect practicing in Vietnam 

Ed Haysom June 2020

The Vietnam version of "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture: Mid-century Vernacular Modernism" is now in bookstores

Thế Giới Publishers of Hanoi has released the Vietnam version of the book and it is now in Hanoi bookstores. It should be in Ho Chi Minh City bookstores next week.

This version is a black-and-white paperback with 456 pages, using the same text (in English) and architectural photography as in the international version. The list price is 320,000 VND.

Updating the "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" int'l version availability

We are giving up on amazon.com in America as a source for our book, "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture: Mid-century Vernacular Modernism," published by Architecture Vietnam Books for international distribution. The book is currently on amazon.com through a third-party vendor that is offering it as a "used book" for a price that is 54% higher than the list price! But you may find a different price if you go there, given how their algorithm works.

We recommend barnesandnoble.com in the USA, as well as several online bookstores including alibris.com and abebooks.com. It is also available at international online stores including amazon.ca in Canada, amazon.com.au in Australia, amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr in France, amazon.de in Germany, bookdepository.com in the UK, and booktopia.com.au in Australia. The ISBN number is 9780578516585. All of these links should take you directly to the book.

The international version is a print-on-demand 8-1/2"-square format full-color trade paperback, which is ideal for featuring Alexandre Garel's superb architectural photography. That means that if you order it at an online bookstore, it will then be printed by IngramSpark at one of their worldwide printing plants and shipped by them to you.

We will post an announcement shortly about the availability of the separate version of this book (in black-and-white) that has been published by Thế Giới Publishers of Hanoi for distribution in Vietnam.

The international version of "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" is published

Photographer Alexandre Garel and Author Mel Schenck are proud to announce that "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" has been published in America for international distribution. It is currently available on Barnes & Noble as well as several online bookstores. It isn’t up on Amazon.com yet, but we keep hoping it will pop up any time now. It is also available at several international online stores including Amazon Australia. The ISBN number is 978-0-578-51658-5.

This book is a print-on-demand 8-1/2"-square format full-color trade paperback. That means that if you order it at an online bookstore, it will then be printed by IngramSpark and shipped by them to you. This book will also be available through Ingram at retail bookstores and libraries, assuming they decide to carry such a small-niche book.

Our friends in Vietnam should wait a couple of weeks when a separate version of this book (in black-and-white) will be published by Thế Giới Publishers of Hanoi for distribution only in Vietnam.

One of the best examples of the golden age of Vietnamese modernist architecture

In our upcoming book, "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture", we make the claim that the period of Vietnamese history between 1945 through 1975 can be considered a golden age of Vietnamese modernism. Unlike most places in the world, Vietnam embraced modernism and the industrial age, and the development of Vietnamese modernist architecture during this period brought forth a distinctive version of modern architecture that is unique in the world. This mid-twentieth-century architecture in Vietnam parallels the development of mid-century modern architecture in America and other places around the world.

Most of the projects featured in our book were designed during that period, but all of them were buildings that Alexandre Garel could find and photograph. Therefore there were a lot of beautiful projects that we could not include. The photograph above illustrates one of the best examples of Vietnamese modernism. It shows the Standard Vacuum Oil Company building that was constructed in downtown Saigon in 1955. The building later became known as the ESSO building. Unfortunately, it was demolished in 2011.

The architect is unknown. Some speculate that it might have been an American firm, but the architecture is consistent with the characteristics of Vietnamese modernist architecture developed by Vietnamese architects.

Photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:StanVacBuilding1955.jpg, user latinsq

Producing an architecture book

It takes a long time to produce an architecture book, including the "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture: Mid-century Vernacular Modernism" book. I hadn’t realized that the time in production often exceeds the time for writing. Alexandre Garel’s beautiful architectural photography had to be retouched and prepared for printing, and the book itself had to be designed and laid out. But we are getting close to publication now since all of these things are completed. Thanks to Mads Monsen of Studio MadsMonsen, the international version of the book will be very beautiful and modernist. His photograph of the simulated book is shown above.

The book will be published in two different versions. The text and the photographs will be the same, but the format size and printing will be different.

The international version will be a full-color large-format trade paperback printed by IngramSpark of America and distributed through Ingram, the largest distributor of books in the world. They will wholesale the book to brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries, as well as all the online outlets around the world including Amazon.com. This version of the book should be on sale by mid-May.

I am pleased to announce that Thế Giới Publishers of Hanoi is producing a black-and-white trade paperback version for sale in Vietnam. I believe that they will release the book in a couple of months, and I will keep you informed about the sales date.

I am excited to offer this book for your consideration, and I think it will answer many questions about the definitions, extent, and quality of Vietnamese mid-century modernist architecture.

Southern Vietnamese architects adapted global modernist architecture because it accommodated the tropical climate

A friend asked me a while back why the Vietnamese architects adopted European modernist architecture after colonialism rather than develop their own indigenous architecture. The most important answer is that southern Vietnamese people see good ideas and adapt them to fit southern Vietnamese needs. This comes from a long history of contact with European and Asian traders along the coast. The southern Vietnamese architects could see how modernist architecture could be easily adapted to suit the tropical climate. They also saw similarities to Vietnamese traditional architecture that could be enhanced to project Vietnamese identity.

But modernism isn’t just a European idea. Although Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe of the Bauhaus were German and Le Corbusier was French-Swiss, the other pioneers of modernism were Americans like Frank Lloyd Wright and William LeBaron Jenney with the first metal-framed skyscraper in Chicago in 1885. The Russians were also pioneers of modernism with their Constructivist architecture.

Modernism quickly spread throughout the world between the world wars and became a global movement. But the primary impetus came after World War II with the cascading independence of former colonial countries in Africa, South America, and Asia in the 1950s. These countries inevitably embraced mid-century modern architecture. Because it suited Vietnamese identity so well, the southern Vietnamese embraced it totally into the culture and made Vietnamese modernist architecture the vernacular architecture for houses.

Photograph: Robie House, Chicago, 1910 — Source: Teemu08, https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Frederick_C._Robie_ House.JPG, Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Beautiful Modernist Architecture

As the leaders of America take the USA into the decadence of mandating the use of Greco-Roman classical architecture, we are thankful to celebrate the Vietnamese culture in their embracing of modernism. Our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" celebrates the achievements of the Vietnamese in developing a modernist vernacular architecture that represents their identity and beautifies their world.

The classicists in the U.S. and the U.K. insist that only classical architecture is beautiful and that modernism is a "hideous cultural atrocity." It seems that half of Americans believe this, which is not surprising considering the practical nature of American culture.

The marker for judging the acceptance of an architecture is what people live in. Westerners have never much accepted modernist architecture for their houses, The houses of Americans are modern, but not modernist, and are usually of historicist period-revival styles such as Spanish-colonial.  Meanwhile, the southern Vietnamese actively embraced their version of modernist architecture in the mid-century and continue to do so today. There are few other cultures in the world that have done so to the degree the Vietnamese have. You can pick any southern Vietnamese neighborhood at random and walk down the streets and find that substantially over half of the houses are beautiful modernist.

How and why did the southern Vietnamese embrace modernism? Those are the questions answered in our forthcoming book. We look forward to announcing its publication soon.

Abstract expression of Vietnamese architecture of the mid-century is exhibited in a small southern Vietnam hotel

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.

Le Corbusier’s Influence on Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture

Le Corbusier was the 'nom de plume' of Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, who was born in Switzerland but practiced architecture primarily in France. He was one of the pioneers of the new modernism in Europe in the 1920s. Arthur Kruze, the Director of the Architecture Department of 'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine' in Hanoi undoubtedly presented Le Corbusier’s early work on villas to his architecture students. But it was in the 1950s that Le Corbusier’s work made an immediate impact on Vietnamese modernist architecture. It is likely that southern Vietnamese architects became well aware of Le Corbusier’s work in India, especially the Secretariat of the union government of the Punjab in the new Capitol Complex at Chandigarh, India, in 1953. This building displays the articulation of architectural features in composing the facade, such as the low walls making up guard rails at the balconies, separated from the columns. The horizontal planes at the loggias act as deflectors for light into the interior spaces, as well as platforms for air conditioning condensers. Architectural elements like this with adaptations for the tropical climate became standard features of Vietnamese mid-century modern architecture. [Architectural photography used under CC BY 2.0 license, Source: Lian Chang from New York City, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chandigarh_Secretariat.jpg]

Abstract Composition in Vietnamese Modernist Architecture

Our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" presents examples of this architecture organized by the types of designs, rather than by architect or location. Many of these types are based upon features that mitigate the tropical climate in Vietnam, such as brise-soleil sun shading elements, or double-wall construction using exterior corridors or loggias. Our chapter on "Abstract Composition" features designs that present the exterior facade of the building upfront and use it as a backdrop for elements such as windows that are placed using artistic criteria in composing the design.

The modernist building constructed at Twenty Lý Tự Trọng Street in Ho Chi Minh City is part of the campus for the Trần Đại Nghĩa Specialist High School (originally École Taberd). It was designed by Vietnamese architect Huỳnh Kim Mãng at the same time in 1960 that he designed another portion of the campus along Hai Bà Trưng Street in Saigon. The street facade of this building is an outstanding example of abstract composition. The facade is composed of small windows arrayed on a flat plain wall. While the second-floor windows demonstrate a syncopated rhythm, the third floor is pure randomness.  A few of these randomly-placed windows display random colors. The ground floor facade features a fabric-like color-striped pattern which also shows some randomness in the offset included in the wall. This design has gone to great lengths to conform somewhat to the internal functions of the building, but the real intention here is the abstract intellectual composition.

The architectural photography by Alexandre Garel presents this building beautifully. Photo © 2019 by Alexandre Garel.

Why did the southern Vietnamese culture embrace modernism?

Modernism has not been widely accepted by people around the world. While it sometimes became the architecture of commerce and government, it has rarely become the vernacular architecture of dwellings or small workplaces. Global modernist architecture is often perceived as soulless and bland because of the smooth glass and metal boxes that have proliferated around the world. Southern Vietnam is one of the few places in the world where modernism was not only accepted but embraced. Vietnamese modernist architecture became the vernacular architecture for shophouses and villas in southern Vietnam from the 1950s onwards.

In my forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture," I offer several reasons why the culture embraced modernism. The architectural photography illustrates a few of these reasons. The top photograph was taken by me in Saigon in 1972 across from the "Turtle Lake" monument at the intersection of Phạm Ngọc Thach and Võ Văn Tân Streets in Ho Chi Minh City. The bottom photograph was taken by me in 2015. The building is not smooth and minimalist like global modernist structures. The exterior walls set back from the outer frame of this mid-century modern building provide an interplay of light and dark that provides interest and human scale to a large apartment building. The exterior grid of thin columns and floor beams features added horizontal elements that provide decorative interest to the building, and since each floor is well-defined instead of lost in the overall skin of the building, it gives human scale related to the height of a person. The southern Vietnamese people could see precedents here from Vietnamese traditional architecture and perceived Vietnamese identity in this new architecture that was different from world architecture. In addition, Vietnamese modernist architecture was highly adaptable to intervention by the people themselves, as shown in the various changes to the building over time as seen in the photographs.

 

Vietnamese modernist architecture is based upon traditional Vietnamese architecture

In our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture," we make the claim that the mid-century modern architecture in Vietnam continues the Vietnamese identity established in traditional Vietnamese architecture. The French architecture professors of École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi (Fine Arts College of Indochina, begun in 1925) had their Vietnamese students study traditional Vietnamese architecture so that it could inform their development of following architecture. The professors were looking forward to a mix of French Beaux-Arts architecture and traditional Vietnamese architecture, exemplified by the Indochine Style of French-colonial architecture developed in the 1920s. But the Vietnamese students jumped ahead to modernist architecture, including art deco variations.

But they did retain Vietnamese identity in their new modernist architecture? A look at several examples of traditional Vietnamese architecture suggests that they did. Consider the Dền Bà Kiệu in Hanoi, a temple constructed in the 1620s. This building is typical of many temples and community halls throughout Vietnam. The photograph shows a restrained architecture that emphasizes the darkness of the veranda in relation to the lightness of the roof and the structural columns. The structure is the post and beam frame that became the primary feature of Vietnamese modernist architecture. The colors are muted earth tones. These features are what distinguished traditional Vietnamese architecture from Chinese architecture, and therefore created Vietnamese identity.

Any number of Vietnamese modernist buildings meet these same criteria, but this beautiful architectural photography [© 2019 by Alexandre Garel] of a Mekong Delta house makes it very clear.

Modernist architecture is not predominant in northern Vietnam

Our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" focuses on the southern provinces of Vietnam. Modernist architecture became pervasive in Saigon and the south during the mid-century, and has continued to today. The primary thesis of the book states that the southern Vietnamese culture embraced modernism, unlike most other cultures in the world. This includes rural houses, so the vernacular architecture of the south is modernist, which itself is unusual in the world.

While there are several large modernist buildings in Hanoi and the north of Vietnam, modernist houses are relatively rare. For various reasons that we discuss in the book, modern architecture was not embraced by the population in the northern provinces. The vernacular architecture of dwellings in a typical northern village consists of traditional houses with tile roofs or neoclassical multi-story masonry houses. The traditional houses often have beautiful traditional carved wood trusses supporting the roof.

Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture is the Antithesis of Brutalism

Southern Vietnamese modernist architecture is not brutalist. Brutalism was a style name that was applied to many mid-century modern buildings in Europe and America that featured bare rough concrete. The name originally came from the French words béton-brut, which means raw concrete. Many of Le Corbusier’s works became associated with this term since the elements of his forms used raw concrete showing the formwork marks of the boards. The elements of his compositions were also rather heavy and his major housing projects in France were massive. Over time, these and other designs took on the connotation of brutal. When combined with the public’s perception of soulless modern architecture in the years after World War II, brutalism became a pejorative term.

Today, people are beginning to understand and value this architecture as heritage, and the term brutalist is being applied to many buildings even if they don’t meet the spirit of the term.

Southern Vietnamese modernist architecture is not brutalist. The modern architecture of Vietnam rarely uses raw concrete. The reinforced concrete structural frames are covered with plaster, and the facade surfaces are usually brick faced with plaster. In the mid-century, Vietnamese modernist buildings used a rough form of plaster featuring washed stone embedded in the plaster. But the overall effect of this was still a relatively smooth surface.

Most importantly, southern Vietnamese modern architecture is characterized by its lightness. The structural columns are made as thin as possible. Light thin elements such as sun shades are added that increase the effect of lightness. This lightness is the antithesis of brutalism. This beautiful architectural photograph by Alexandre Garel of the 1960s apartment building at 12 Võ Văn Kiệt Boulevard in Ho Chi Minh City shows that this large building displays very well the lightness of Vietnamese modernist architecture.

Could We Still Build Something as Beautiful as Notre-Dame?

Andrew Sullivan, a British immigrant to America, is one of Mel’s favorite writers. He usually writes from a center-right position about politics and social matters, most recently for New York Magazine. His latest long column ended with a short segment lamenting the inability of architecture in the modern era to match that of Notre Dame. The headline above is his section heading.

Sullivan thinks that the primary criteria for modernist architecture is function and cost, and the creation of beauty is subordinate. He is definitely wrong. He stated, "Even if you survey modern cathedrals, there is a lack of detail and an absence of the kind of skill that enabled the twelfth century to construct marvels beyond our capacity." He mistakes the crustiness of ornamentation for complexity, and he hasn’t looked for the exquisite materials and details of modernist construction.

Notre Dame Cathedral is a prime example of the architecture of the agricultural age; times when religion was the primary purpose for life and architecture focused on God or the gods.

Today is Easter, and I am celebrating with fellow Christians the resurrection of Christ. But religion is not central in the industrial age, or the information age that we are now entering. Science became predominant in modernity, and we turned our attention to the quality of life.

The many beautiful modernist houses that have been constructed over the past hundred years are probably the best buildings to illustrate the equal design quality of our times. The houses of Frank Lloyd Wright alone compare favorably with any architecture in the world. From thousands of beautiful modernist houses that exemplify the beauty of modernist architecture, consider this villa from our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture." It is located at 29 Phạm Ngọc Thạch Street in District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City. It was designed by Vietnamese architect Nguyễn Văn Hoa in the 1960s. This beautiful architectural photograph is by Alexandre Garel © 2019.

The definition of architecture, by Victor Hugo

Why Notre Dame matters, in one Victor Hugo passage

@constancegrady has an article out on Vox that puts the value of Notre Dame in perspective. She focuses on a passage by Victor Hugo in his book "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," published in 1831. The book became very popular and resulted in public pressure to restore the deteriorating Notre Dame cathedral.

The passage reads like a definition of the best of architecture and art:

Great edifices, like great mountains, are the work of centuries. Art often undergoes a transformation while they are pending, pendent opera interrupta; they proceed quietly in accordance with the transformed art. The new art takes the monument where it finds it, incrusts itself there, assimilates it to itself, develops it according to its fancy, and finishes it if it can. The thing is accomplished without trouble, without effort, without reaction,— following a natural and tranquil law. It is a graft which shoots up, a sap which circulates, a vegetation which starts forth anew. Certainly there is matter here for many large volumes, and often the universal history of humanity in the successive engrafting of many arts at many levels, upon the same monument. The man, the artist, the individual, is effaced in these great masses, which lack the name of their author; human intelligence is there summed up and totalized. Time is the architect, the nation is the builder. […]

All these shades, all these differences, do not affect the surfaces of edifices only. It is art which has changed its skin. The very constitution of the Christian church is not attacked by it. There is always the same internal woodwork, the same logical arrangement of parts. […] The service of religion once assured and provided for, architecture does what she pleases. Statues, stained glass, rose windows, arabesques, denticulations, capitals, bas-reliefs,—she combines all these imaginings according to the arrangement which best suits her. Hence, the prodigious exterior variety of these edifices, at whose foundation dwells so much order and unity. The trunk of a tree is immovable; the foliage is capricious.

It took 200 years to build Notre Dame. Great examples of Vietnamese modernist architecture, like the Independence Palace, took only a few years, but the level of art and the value of the architecture is comparable to a degree.

Beautiful architectural photographs document a disappearing mid-century modern architectural history

Architectural history is disappearing faster than we can learn from it. This beautiful architectural photograph by Alexandre Garel (© 2019) illustrates one of the most stunning Vietnamese modernist villas designed and constructed in Saigon in the 1960s. Located at 30 Phùng Khắc Khoan Street in the Dakao Ward of Ho Chi Minh City, known as the diplomatic quarter in the mid-century, it may have originally been an embassy. It has been occupied by the District One Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam since 1975.

It was just demolished.

This is one of several recently demolished projects that will be published in our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture." Our book will serve as a record of these projects, and it is unfortunately likely that other beautiful Vietnamese modernist architecture exemplars like this one will be demolished soon. Regrettably, this building will probably be replaced by a government style of architecture that doesn’t recognize what can be learned from modernist buildings like this.

Bastardizing Architectural History

 

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.

Vietnamese modernist architecture was inspired by French art deco designs

Our forthcoming book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" focuses on modernism, but we also set the context for the development of modernist architecture in Vietnam by outlining the architectural history and the architectural heritage of southern Vietnam. In particular, the transition of architecture from colonial neoclassical designs to modernism in Vietnam proved to be a very interesting time for architecture, resulting in some remarkable projects. The Indochina Bank building (now the State Bank of Vietnam) at Eight Võ Văn Kiệt Street was one of the last of the neoclassical buildings (1928). Designed by French architect Felix Dumail, it is augmented with Asian design touches at the roof cornice, but its interior design is a stunning decorative style of art deco. Designs like this encouraged young Vietnamese architects to explore modernist architecture beyond classicism.

Vietnamese modernist architecture is not lazy or formulaic

Most architects of my generation [Mel speaking here] designed modernist architecture because the architecture schools taught mid-century modernism. But many modernist architects were lazy at it — it was much easier to design a minimalist box than to create an ornate classical box. But Vietnamese modernist architecture is not lazy. Each side of the Vietnamese architects’ boxes often had a different design that accommodated the different sunlight conditions, or the site context, or the functional needs. And these designs were complex compositions of ins and outs, sunscreens, and decorative elements (not ornamentation). Alexandre Garel’s beautiful architectural photography here of the courtyard facade of the 1960 addition to the École Taberd (now the Trần Đại Nghĩa Specialist High School) shows the grid of vertical sun-breakers along the double wall created by an exterior corridor. The street facade along Hai Bà Trưng Street is very different. Vietnamese architect Huỳnh Kim Mãng designed this structure, as well as the completely-different auditorium building along Lý Tự Trọng Street.

Southern Vietnam is a center of modernism in the world

Modernist streetscape in Ho Chi Minh City

In our upcoming book on "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture," we claim that southern Vietnam became a center of modernism in the world because the culture embraced modernism. The modernist architecture of Vietnam became the vernacular architecture of houses. If you pick any street or lane at random in the southern cities, you can walk down that street and find that over 70% of the houses will be overtly modernist, and the remainder will be a mix of utilitarian and neoclassical. This community is unusual in the world. Not many cultures have embraced modernism like this. Seventy years of modernist architecture in Vietnam has made it a center of modernism in the world.

 

This streetscape shows the typical modernist architecture along Hẻm 15, Đường Cầu Xéo in the Tân Phú District of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Only the first house on the left is not modernist.

Ornamentation is not normally used in modernist architecture

Ornamentation on Independence Palace, Ho Chi Minh City

Modernist architecture does not use ornamentation. Ornaments are usually sculptures attached to the building — they represent something or have easily understood symbolic meaning. Modernist architecture is abstract. So why is ornamentation featured on Vietnam’s most recognized modernist public building, the Independence Palace? Architect Ngô Viết Thụ incorporated these bas-relief sculptures below the windows. They represent Vietnamese imagery. But they are finely detailed and dense, and therefore they "read" as texture in the design. Whether they are seen and studied, or viewed as part of the composition, they contribute to Vietnamese identity in this design.

 

Ordinary Architecture

An ordinary modernist house in Ho Chi Minh City

When the vast majority of houses in southern Vietnam are modernist, you can be forgiven for not seeing them anymore. They line all the streets and lanes of the cities and villages. They are “ordinary” houses. But they are magnificently Vietnamese modernist architecture! This simple apartment house is a good example. It exhibits the principles of VMA with its expression of structure, inset exterior wall to reduce sun exposure, and simple detailing that is nevertheless composed and interesting. It is simple but still more complicated than the more minimalist western architecture.

Vietnamese modernist architecture in Cambodia

An apartment block in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, by a Vietnamese architect

Walk through the central downtown area of Phnom Penh today, and you will see many examples of modernist architecture for apartment buildings and shophouses that are very similar to Vietnamese architecture. That is partly because French-Vietnamese architect René Nguyễn Khắc Schéou had an architectural office in Phnom Penh for eight years from 1956 through 1964. During that time, he designed several projects, and other Vietnamese architects also contributed designs for commercial projects in Phnom Penh. This apartment house occupies a full city block close to the Central Market. While it looks like a string of independent shophouses along the street, there is a pattern to them that is the same on all four sides and corners because this was designed as a single building by architect Schéou. The New Khmer architecture of Vann Molyvann is the dominant architecture of Cambodia, but Vietnamese modernist architects had the most influence on commercial projects in Cambodia in the 1950s and 1960s.

 

It is the steel or reinforced concrete structural frame that makes modernist buildings possible

A hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The invention of the structural materials of steel and reinforced concrete in the nineteenth century allowed modernist architecture to develop in the twentieth century. Unlike classical age buildings that required massive load-bearing masonry walls, walls could be hung like curtains on the structural frame fabricated from those materials. This revolutionized architecture as modernist architects realized the freedom they now had to develop previously inconceivable forms. And the structural frame itself could be part of the design. This hotel in the neighborhood of the airport in Ho Chi MInh City is a clear expression of structure. The columns, intersecting beams, and floor slabs are the prime factor in the design, and simple screens and walls are added to the frame to accommodate the room functions. Add a bit of color and you have an interesting modernist composition.

Contemporary Vietnamese modernist architecture continues the principles of modernism developed in the golden age 1945-1975

Contemporary apartment house in Ho Chi Minh City

Our forthcoming book on Vietnamese Modernist Architecture focuses on the three decades of the golden age of Vietnamese modernism between 1945 and 1975. The principles and techniques of Vietnamese modernist architecture were developed in that period and made Vietnam an unrecognized center of architectural innovation in the world. Most importantly, the southern Vietnamese as a culture embraced modernism, and it is the vernacular architecture of the culture, especially for dwellings. This new house in the Tan Phu district of Ho Chi Minh City shows that the principles of the golden age continue today — a lightness of scale that breaks down the mass of the building, along with shading elements that respect the climate.

Minimal American influence on Vietnamese modernist architecture in the mid-20th century

Apartment blocks at 239 Cách Mạng Tháng 8 street in Ho Chi Minh City

In researching and studying Vietnamese modernist architecture, we came to the conclusion that Americans had very little influence on the development of Vietnamese modernist architecture in southern Vietnam from 1945 to 1975. Although there was a huge American construction program in the 1960s, most of that was devoted to infrastructure such as airports, seaports, military bases, highways, and bridges.

But this housing project at 239 Cách Mạng Tháng Tám street in District Three did exhibit some American influence. Most Vietnamese modernist apartment buildings appeared lighter through the use of inset double-wall construction and sun-blocking elements. This building, which was being demolished when Alexandre Garel photographed it last Springtime, appears heavier because the exterior walls and windows are brought out to the sun, and balconies are added on the building rather than being inset as in Vietnamese housing. [photograph © 2018 by Alexandre Garel]

 

The other side of buildings

Courtyard of apartments at 95 Pasteur Street in Ho Chi Minh City

Prior to the introduction of lower-cost air conditioning, buildings were often planned to maximize through-ventilation. An apartment or an office can be laid out in about six or seven meters in width, and then an open exterior corridor would be provided. This narrow a space allowed sufficient air to pass through. On a larger downtown plot of land, two wings of a U-shaped building could each have eight-meter wide wings with a courtyard in between. These courtyards, while unseen by most people, are still a design opportunity. Here in the 95 Pasteur Street Apartments in District One of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamese architect René Nguyễn Khắc Schéou made the circular stairs the design element in 1949. [Photo © 2018 by Alexandre Garel]

 

Art in Vietnamese modernist architecture was worth the additional cost in the south in the 1950s through the 1970s

Intricate sun-screen at General Science Library, Ho Chi Minh City

One of the defining characteristics of Vietnamese modernist architecture is its lightness and intricacy. This is often achieved through patterns of concrete screens that block the sun or provide ventilation. Vietnamese architects and builders perfected the means fo precast elements that make up a screen, or to construct the formwork necessary to pour concrete to create the screen directly on the building. The screen shown in the photograph is from the General Science Library on Lý Tự Trọng street in District One of Ho Chi Minh City. It appears that the screen was formed up on site. Considering the many buildings in Vietnam that used this technique, it is amazing that Vietnamese clients and owners were willing to pay the additional costs of such screens. That doesn’t seem to be the case nowadays. [Photo by Alexandre Garel © 2018]

Vietnamese Modernist Architecture is about Details

Vietnamese modernist architecture is more complex than international modernist architecture because it makes use of both functional and decorative forms in the composition. These elements are architectonic rather than sculptural — they are abstract forms that have a simple or geometric shape. Planters and guard rails are typical elements that are simple, but notice that a couple of brackets are added to help support them off the floor edge. The geometric shapes are merely decorative but are still abstract.

Modernist Factories

Shing Viet Factory in Ho Chi Minh City

Independence from colonialism in the 1950s brought the need for Vietnamese to rebuild the economy to focus on consumer and export goods. Vietnamese companies invested in new factories around Saigon and wanted a new modernist image for their companies. Vietnamese architects responded with Vietnamese modernist designs like this factory in Thủ Đức for Shing Việt. This is not your normal utilitarian warehouse. The walls of the factory are inset behind the outer wall of columns and beams to block the sun from heating it up during the day. This also allowed glass windows to allow daylight in the building. The resulting composition is light and airy — the two words most often associated with Vietnamese modernist design. [photo by Alexandre Garel © 2018]

A building that says too much

Apartment House at 29:7 Nguyễn Cảnh Chân Street, Ho Chi Minh City

Of the 350 projects photographed for our upcoming book, we can only publish around 150 of them. It was difficult to make these choices, so we made them based upon the particular feature or story the project tells about Vietnamese modernist architecture. This particular building at the Nguyễn Cảnh Chân street area of District One in Ho Chi Minh City says too much — there is double-wall construction, brise-soleil sun-blocking elements, and added elements in the composition such as the roof trellis that make it a complex design while still holding integrity. But Vietnamese modernist architecture, on the whole, is so good that we just didn’t have room for this beauty. [Photo by Alexandre Garel © 2018].

An ordinary apartment house

Apartment house at 5 Cao Thắng Street in Ho Chi Minh City

What is the difference between global modernism and Vietnamese modernism? This building is an ordinary apartment house. There are many apartment buildings like this one at 5 Cao Thắng Street in District Three in Ho Chi Minh City. In western countries, an ordinary apartment house would most likely be minimalist and utilitarian. There would be the same windows of the same size, but there would be no added sunscreens or other added elements like there are here in Vietnam. It would just be a plain box building. As this building shows, Vietnamese modernist architecture adds many elements that give the building human scale, like the outer corridor wrapping around the front facade, or the structure of sun screening elements on the side facade. These added elements make Vietnamese modernist buildings much richer in appearance.

Rare Use of Wood in Vietnamese Modernist Architecture

Apartment house at 187-189 Nguyễn Thái Bình Street in Ho Chi Minh City

Almost all of the Vietnamese modernist buildings since 1950 use durable materials such as concrete and plaster. This apartment house at 187-189 Nguyễn Thái Bình street in District One of Ho Chi Minh City uses wood slats to block the sun from heating up the southwest facades of this building during the daytime. Architects and historians use the French words brise-soleil to describe this technique. This building presents a more uniform appearance than the more usual highly articulated facades of Vietnamese modernist architecture.

An expressive Saigon villa

Villa at 140 Nguyễn Văn Trỗi Street in Ho Chi Minh City

There is a lot going on in the 1960s design of this villa by Tô Công Văn. He had an expressive style, as shown in this villa along the main street from the airport to downtown Ho Chi Minh City, located in the Phú Nhuận District. Aficionados of American mid-century modern architecture of southern California have called this style “googie style”, and to some degree, it fits with boomerang symbols on the wall and the parabolic window opening on the second-floor facade. This photograph was taken 10 years ago. The added awnings and junk around the house are good because that mean the building is being well-used and isn’t in as much danger of being demolished. Today the house is cleaned up, which is not a good sign.

Expressive Modernist House

This house in the Tân Định area of District One in Ho Chi Minh City shows the expressive side of Vietnamese modernist architecture. The butterfly roof and the angular hooded window are adaptations to the tropical climate while providing whimsy in an otherwise rectilinear modernist composition. Unfortunately, high fences and gates make architectural photography difficult in Vietnam, so we can’t see what is probably a very interesting ground floor facade. There are parallels here to California mid-century modernist architecture.

Early Modernist Saigon Apartment Building

Heritage apartment building at 40-42 Nguyễn Huệ Blvd., Ho Chi Minh City

Photo by Alexandre Garel © 2018

The ten-story modernist apartment building at 40-42 Nguyễn Huệ Blvd. was constructed in Saigon around 1950. Old Saigoneers with long memories recall that the building was designed by a French architect. It is likely that the building was constructed by a French developer/constructor such as Société urbaine foncière indochinoise, or Brossard et Mopin with an in-house architect. French architects working for those firms in the late 1940s include Maurice Masson and Robert Giles. It is a simple expression of structure — columns and spandrel beams. This building shows the power of modernist architecture to accommodate the needs and desires of the users — the exterior walls of tenant spaces have changed over time. It also demonstrates the ability of modernist architecture to adapt to new uses — over time, trendy retail shops and cafes have taken over apartments.

International Style vs. Vietnamese Modernism

National Treasury Building at 37 Nguyễn Huệ Boulevard, Ho Chi Minh City

You may think the building in the middle of this photograph is a global International Style modernist building. It is not. The taller building behind it, designed by an American architect, is. What is the difference? International Style buildings are almost always glass and metal boxes or tubes, have smooth skins, and express the floor levels with horizontality. The building in the middle does not — It has variation in its glass and metal skin because vertical components were added that give the skin depth and detail. The building expresses some of its functions, beyond just office space, with the insets that may represent more ceremonial spaces. The Vietnamese building is a more vibrant human-scaled building. This is an addition to the HCMC branch of the National Treasury, occupied in 2007. Vietnamese architects Nguyễn Trường Lưu and Ngô Đằng Vân designed this building, and it is a Vietnamese modernist building.