COLLECTIVE DOMESTIC: VIETNAMESE HOUSES IN THE CITY AND VILLAGE
2012 Typology
Central Vietnam
This paper will focus on Jianfi Zhu’s 5th point in his Six Points for a Critical Architecture which is: “Collaborative agency with a relational logic (against individualism)”. Specifically, this “collaborative agency… [and] relational logic” will be looked at through the framework of family kinship and structure expressed through its domestic architecture in the Vietnamese city and village. The case studies will be selected from primitive villages in Central Vietnam to French Colonial influence on the domestic dwelling and the modern shop house in contemporary Vietnamese cities.
Furthermore, each periodization of these domestic architectures will be categorized to define what is common in order to find what is typical. Finally, this paper will examine ways in which the common and typical element of what is “collaborative” and “relational” – along with inclusive and collectivist – are carried over from one specific typical categorization to another. Plan diagrams will be used to study spatial relationships, order and hierarchy while sections and axonometric diagrams will examine the construction techniques, implementation methods and materials used in Vietnamese domestic architecture due to the fact that it is largely a vernacular activity.
