The nine-story building at forty-two Nguyen Hue Street reveals its history through a jagged, mismatched facade of balconies. Originally built in the mid-nineteen sixties as housing for American military officers and government employees,…
Saigon Mid-Century Modernism Walk
This walk reveals the clean lines, concrete ventilation grilles, and geometric shapes of southern Vietnamese modernism that defined Saigon's post-independence golden age.
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1. The Cafe Apartment
2. Thư Viện Khoa Học Tổng Hợp - 69 Lý Tự Trọng
The General Sciences Library on Ly Tu Trong Street features a distinctive, elevated concrete structure supported by massive pillars that create an open, shaded plaza underneath. Originally built as the National Library of the Republic of…
3. Independence Palace
The Independence Palace is defined by its long, curved facade covered in a vertical concrete screen shaped like traditional bamboo curtains. Completed in nineteen sixty-six, the building served as the home and workplace of the president of…
4. University of Architecture HCMC (UAH)
The University of Architecture in Ho Chi Minh City stands out for its curved, serrated concrete facade that wraps around the corner like a stack of open sketchbooks. Designed by architect Nguyen Van Que and completed in the mid-nineteen…
5. Ho Chi Minh City Youth Cultural House
The Youth Cultural House sits behind a wide, paved courtyard distinguished by a dense canopy of ancient banyan trees that shade the space year-round. This site began as a French colonial police headquarters, a building designed to assert…
6. Turtle Lake
Turtle Lake is a circular concrete plaza punctuated by an enormous, jagged fountain that resembles a stylized lotus flower. It occupies a former water tower site left over from the colonial era. During the late nineteen sixties, the…