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“T
his exhibition combines Vi-
etnamese traditions with
the architecture and envi-
ronmental thinking of to-
morrow,” says Danish ambassador John
Nielsen. The project and the exhibition
have a strong link to the important climate
agenda, stressing the challenges in rela-
tion to water.
It aims to showcase the quality of Viet-
namese water dwellings in order to high-
light their great inspirational potential for
developing new environmentally friendly
building approaches.
“Vietnam is renowned for the local
principles used to construct buildings on
water. A historically strong tradition of
floating structures has created enduring
architectural qualities that can serve as eye-
openers for contemporary Western archi-
tecture and architecture in general,” says
Hans Peter Hagens, who spent almost two
months in 2013 doing research in Vietnam.
He and his colleague, anthropologist
Louise Sylvest Vestergaard, lived in the
southern city of Can Tho and the northeast
province of Quang Ninh. They combined
studies of local architecture and construc-
tion with interviews with local residents
about their perception of life in the water
dwellings.
The team’s collage of records, draw-
ings, portrait photos and interviews gives an
insight into Vietnamese building traditions.
Hans Peter Hagens thinks that the wa-
ter dwelling adaptation can be applied to
Danish canal towns: “Danish Canal towns
are very challenging because we have in-
creasing problems with the water level due
to hurricanes and torrential rain. Further, it
is very attractive to live near the water and
the nature, but that’s something people in
Western countries are missing and there-
fore are ready to pay a lot of money for.”
Hans Peter truly believes examples
from Vietnam can be useful internation-
ally. “For the future, Vietnam’s construction
principles for building on water in urban
areas can form the basis for reinterpreting
urban planning and architecture, both in
Vietnam and in Denmark and the rest of the
Nordic and Asian regions,” he emphasised.
Partly funded by Denmark’s Cultural
Development and Exchange Fund, the ex-
hibition will be displayed at the Danish
Embassy (17-19 Dien Bien Phu, Hanoi) until
March 6 and at Manzi Art Space (14 Phan
Huy Ich, Hanoi) until March 30 and also at
the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architec-
ture until March 10.
For more information visit
www.arkitekturvaerkstedet.dk
Born in 1963, Hans Peter Hagens
graduated from the Royal Acad-
emy of Fine Arts in 1990. In 1993,
he established his independent
firm with a broad portfolio cover-
ing traditional architecture and
construction alongside landscape
architecture. He is now a member
of the Royal academy of Fine Arts
of Denmark.
Danish archi-
tect
Hans Peter
Hagen
’s new
exhibition features
Vietnamese wa-
ter dwellings. It
runs in Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City
from now until
the end of March.
ART SCENE
LIFE STYLE
FLOATING IDEAS