AIA IR Vietnam: Saigon Modernist Architecture
When: Friday 15 October 2021 @ 08:00 (Eastern US Time)/ 19:00 (Vietnam time)
CES Credits - 1.0 LU for AIA Members
Speaker: Mel Schenck, architect, writer
Description
The vast quantity and quality of Vietnamese modernist buildings constructed throughout southern Vietnam between 1945 and 1975 made Vietnam an unrecognized center of modernism in the world. This presentation recognizes the accomplishment of the Vietnamese people in developing their own modernist architecture that reflects Vietnamese identity based upon their traditional architecture. Unlike most places in the world, the Vietnamese people embraced modernism and it became the vernacular architecture for dwellings throughout southern Vietnam.
Beautiful architectural photography by Alexandre Garel supplements the text by Mel Schenck as published in the book “Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture.”
Learning Objectives:
Understand how a post-colonial culture rediscovers its modern identity through its own traditional architecture.
Identify how a regional modernist architecture fits within global modernism.
Examine how vernacular architecture can encompass modernist architecture by the choices of the people themselves.
Discover how a distinctive local modernist architecture is embraced by its population, making it a center of modernism in the world, albeit unrecognized.
Speaker Bio
Mel Schenck, architect, writer
Author of the book "Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture", Mel Schenck is an American architect with five decades of experience managing international design and construction. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree at Montana State University in 1970 and a Master of Architecture degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981. Mel began his career managing construction contracts to Vietnamese constructors for the U.S. Navy in Saigon and southern Vietnam in 1971/1972, where he became enamored with the Vietnamese mid-century modern architecture. After several years managing architectural projects in America, Mel managed the operations of KMD Architects, a San Francisco firm with offices in Asia and Mexico as well as major cities in the U.S. He returned to Vietnam in 2006 to direct master planning for the 325-hectare Vinh Hoi Bay Golf Resort and two new towns in the Cu Chi District of Ho Chi Minh City. He leads a weekly seminar on Vietnamese modern architecture and history at the Huỳnh Tấn Phát Foundation in Ho Chi Minh City for university architecture and planning students, and is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians based in America. While working in America, he was a registered architect in California and a member of the San Francisco Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Mel’s article “The Largest Military Construction Project in History” was published in the New York Times on 16 January 2018. Mel is on the internet at blog.architecturevietnam.com.
