Modernism is an architectural movement associated with functional and minimalist design. But in Vietnam, where the movement grew more organically in the mid-20th century, a unique style evolved as everyday citizens added their own decorative flourishes to these concrete structures.
Amidst the armies of motorbikes in Saigon is among the least expected places from which to discover a unique branch of modernist architecture.
Like other post-colonial states, Vietnam embraced modernism while looking for the contemporary face of an ancient identity. But in few countries is there such a popular embrace of the style as in Vietnam, where architects have not designed as many of the country’s modernist structures as the general public.
Because this architecture was accepted spontaneously in the mid-20th century, spreading over southern Vietnam by the vernacular culture, it became more decorative and spiritual than the typically unsentimental, functional and minimalist modernism would normally tolerate.
However, it is this very phenomenon that reveals the heart of Vietnamese architectural identity.
Vietnamese modernist architecture really started after 1954 when the country regained its independence after almost a century of colonialism. The government of South Vietnam put in place a Rehabilitation Plan meant to rebuild the devastated country, set up new cities, solve housing problems and construct new infrastructure.
With that kind of encouragement, the pace of new construction became intense. As described in a special periodical on architecture published in 1963 in the magazine Sáng Dội Miền Nam, “the houses grow so fast that maps can’t keep up”. Homes finished even before the intended completion of roads, meaning maps couldn’t update fast enough to capture the true urban context.
This was especially true in Saigon, where the slums of immigrants along canals posed regular threats of fires. These communities, which also posed sanitary issues for residents, came to attract many social housing projects in the form of new neighbourhoods (cư xá) or new apartment buildings (chung cư).
Many of these projects, and those built more broadly during the Rehabilitation Plan era, adopted modernist designs that had, by then, achieved mainstream appeal across the world.
Another situation that pushed the development of modernist architecture ...