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Nguyen Truong Quy
The Vietnamese do not have grand traditional architectural structures, but have invented living spaces adapted to the land’s natural conditions and people’s living habits. When looking at architecture, one can see the history of a community or country. Vietnam’s traditional architecture has always been diverse as many ethnicities share this land. Overall, everything links to life being dependent on nature, with rice farming at the center.
The Vietnamese do not have grand traditional architectural structures, but have invented living spaces adapted to the land’s natural conditions and people’s living habits. When looking at architecture, one can see the history of a community or country. Vietnam’s traditional architecture has always been diverse as many ethnicities share this land. Overall, everything links to life being dependent on nature, with rice farming at the center.
While there are distinctions among types of houses, such as two-wing or three-compartment buildings or community buildings like communal houses arranged like a ceremonial house with five, seven, or even nine compartments, or temples, tombs, and palaces, generally, the house’s frame features wooden columns, beams, and pillars, covered by brick walls. Most have just one floor with a very large roof. The column system usually includes main columns and smaller columns, sometimes with side columns, all in even numbers. Houses have an odd number of compartments, laid out symmetrically on both sides of the central compartment.
Differences usually lie in how the compartments are laid out, from forming a single horizontal line to the shape of the Chinese character 三, or 工. Sometimes, more buildings are added to form a structure resembling the character 国. There may also be differences in the heights of the columns, as well as in the space between the main and secondary buildings; between the open spaces for common activities and the private spaces for worshipping and sleeping; and between the inside of the house and the courtyard.
Transitional spaces convey a perspective on the personal and the common and on being closed or open, in line with Vietnamese people’s views on the universe and the need for living spaces to adapt to natural conditions. The key role of transitional spaces is to balance the microclimate outside and inside the house.
In regions with a complex tropical monsoon climate, with hot summers and cold winters, spaces like screened patios or patios covered by a large, low roof give residents a transitional space when they must go outside in bad weather. Patios and lean-tos provide shelter from the elements. Farmers can rest here before going into the main house. Family members can enjoy a meal or a drink to cool down on a summer afternoon.
Communal houses, pagodas and temples also have buffer spaces. Patios and transitional steps add to the grand appearance of community structures with spiritual functions. Ponds and lakes in front of buildings surrounded by old trees complete this system of transitional spaces.
Long-ago artisans showcased their wood- or stone-carving talent on transitional spaces like patios, doors, steps etc. Carvings on columns and beams that are visible under the roof and on sacred animals placed by the door, combined with the effects of indirect lighting, create a simple yet dreamlike beauty.
Rustic brown
Comparing Vietnam’s traditional architecture to that of neighboring countries, the most recognizable impression is created by colors. The architecture of neighboring countries employs a diverse color palette to create an identity, like the golden pagodas in many Southeast Asian countries, or temples carved from shiny materials or painted in colorful, sophisticated patterns in countries to the north. In contrast, Vietnam’s traditional spiritual structures and houses only feature vibrant colors inside worshipping areas. The main colors are gold and red. Apart from palaces in the Hue Citadel, decorated with colorful porcelain mosaics, or architecture bearing foreign influences, most traditional Vietnamese spaces have brown roofs and unpainted wooden frames.
The brown color of traditional houses looks harmonious surrounded by greenery, reflecting the philosophy of living with nature. This type of architecture does not seek to suppress or tame nature but to become part of nature, creating an organic shell for the stable life of Vietnamese people over thousands of years.
Within that balance, the lines of the curved roofs, the gate, or the tower create charming highlights on the structure. The image of a tower on a limestone mountain reflecting in a river is compared to a jade hair pin in the hair of a fairy. The grand roof of a communal house helps strengthen the sense of community in the village. Upon their return, those who have been away are met with a symbol of their hometown. Nowadays, these symbols are at a risk of being lost, but live on in the minds of Vietnamese people.
