Yen So Park

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.

YENSO PARK

HA NOI, VIETNAM

Introduction
The year 2010 marked the millennium year of Hanoi and Hanoi was set to celebrate 1000 years of its conception. Vietnam was occupied by the Chinese for over a thousand years after which, Vietnam was a colonial battleground for the French and the Americans. All three nations have left indelible marks on the physical and psychological character of the nation. Russia too has left its marks in its support towards communist Vietnam who declared their independence in 1945. Reunification in 1975 brought further hardships as the nation tried to find a footing in a world previously hostile towards communism.

Over the last 40 years, Hanoi has progressed from a nation bewildered by self-determination to a country that is self assured and confident. After a century of war, Hanoi is poised to move into another era, a new millennium with a better future. The 1000 years celebration of Hanoi marks that transition. With the celebration, The Yen So Park is determined to become a mover of this change.

Design Idea
The park derives inspiration from the rich tapestry of Hanoi’s culture and translates it into a personal experience where the visitors are carried through a journey of both the traditional and contemporary designed to arouse emotions or to stimulate the mind. The park scape is segmented into a procession of experience from the historic – the Traditional Park, to the contemporary – Culture Gardens and the Celebration Square and onwards to the future – Future Vietnam.

For the last two decades, the chosen site was wild unkempt parklands with lakes that have become the hapless spill over catchment for the open sewerage canal that runs alongside the lake. The rejuvenation of the parkland is a metaphor for the rejuvenation of Hanoi itself where in crafting this transformation, the parklands shall represent a strong appreciation of Vietnam Heritage whilst reflecting the strength and aspiration of a growing nation.

Project Description
Yen So Park is an 800 acre urban cultural rejuvenation programme in Hanoi that consists of several concept parks, the Traditional Park, Culture Garden, Celebration Square and Future Vietnam that are brought together by a common lake. Each concept park elaborates a certain aspect of Vietnamese identity in art, architecture, history, food and culture.

The Traditional Park recreates a traditional village that consists of a theatre, a tea-house, a crafts centre, F&B kiosks and restrooms. The Culture Garden consists of traditional and formal gardens that provide the setting for the music pavilion, a boat house and a cultural gallery. The park is terminated at the sales gallery that combines the different park concepts into one coherent architectural expression.

A strong synergy is created between architecture and landscaping juxtaposing distinct architectural expressions in a complementary interpretation of each segment. The segments progress through lush landscaping that hugs and addresses the lake, each complementing the other. The building composition addresses the lake and its landscaping context. The architectural expression speaks the historical and cultural language that has been re-interpreted in symbiosis with each segment concept parks.

Design Significance
At the turn of the century, Le Corbusier was disturbed by the problems of public housing in the industrial cities of Europe. The two world wars at the beginning of the century exacerbated the problem. He sought through architecture and the modern movement to bring about better living conditions and a better society. Architecture was no more bourgeoisies pandering to rich patrons, but was seen as a means towards a democratic solution to social problems and as a mover of social change.

At the other extreme, Albert Speer utilised architecture to express the nihilistic national aspirations of the Aryan master race ideal. The National Socialist movement thrived on the grandiose and powerful architectural language. Here architecture is used as a means of social and ideological manipulation to impart the notion of their greatness.

Architecture is an experiential phenomenon that boldly stands not only in space and time but in the hearts and minds of a people. Lord Nelson Statue of Trafalgar Square is synonymous with London just as the Eiffel Tower is with Paris. Sydney would definitely be a poorer place without the Opera House.

Every nation exploits this phenomenon to create a sense of national identity and pride. Major public buildings such as the parliament building or a museum are usually expressed as a statement of nation hood. Monuments too are built to evoke national consciousness and pride.

The Joseph Paxton’s Crystal palace was built at the height of the British Empire as a showcase of its might and influence. So was the Eiffel Tower. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the new America as a symbol of solidarity to the principles of freedom and equality. It was also as a strong message snubbing the English.

The Yen So park is an unprecedented public project that provides a much needed public space for the people of Hanoi. The boldness and self-confidence in proposing such a project is a sign of coming of age. Hanoi is on the threshold of change and the park is poised to become the agent of change. However those changes may only occur with knowledge and self-realisation. History and the ideals of a better future resonate throughout the park and it is this understanding that is ultimately conveyed to the people of Hanoi. At the park, the history and culture of Vietnam is reinterpreted through current emotions and aspirations that is ultimately expressed in modernist design concepts.

Here architecture is being employed to express a national aspiration where architecture is not just about buildings and structures but about creating a national consciousness and identity through architecture. With the ability to evoke a sense of identity and pride, architecture has a large role to play in creating a national consciousness. And when the people clamours for change towards a better future, architecture will become the agents of change.

Cultural Gardens
Cultural Gallery
Befitting the design intent to showcase Vietnamese culture, the design concept takes its cue from the tube-houses of traditional Vietnamese houses. The deconstruction of the traditional Vietnamese tube houses and gardens enable the Cultural Gallery to be reconstructed along traditional values and expressed in modernist terms. In the tube house the courtyard separates the two main building blocks where a covered veranda way provides the connection. Entrance to the building is preceded by an entrance courtyard which is guarded by a set of pillar gates.

The Cultural Gallery is a pair of glass box separated by a garden. Vertical planes in traditional red brick dissect the building and the contrast in colours accentuates the building planar and tectonic form. The vertical plane also provides the visual connection between the two buildings. The garden is an extension of the park where the building and garden are melded into one spatial composition. Water elements snake through and under the buildings. Relating to the One Pillar Pagoda of Hanoi, the Gallery building is propped by one rust coloured pillar standing in a pond of water. From the front, entrance to the Cultural Gallery is through a gate that cuts across a courtyard where classical Vietnamese screen patterns creates visual interest on the entrance walls.

History is a progression of events that marks the life of a nation and its people where culture is how the people enliven that history. The gallery spaces are designed as a sequence of exhibition that moves from the outside and weaves within the building before terminating back outside in a garden. The sequence denotes the movement of life and the movement in history. Moving through the spaces is therefore like a journey through time and space.

The tale of the Vietnamese culture is not only shown as exhibits but is to be experienced within the modern interpretation of a Vietnamese tube house. the Cultural Gallery takes a contemplative and contemporary look at the culture and history of Hanoi where it may impart a sense of identity and pride as a people and a nation.

Cultural Gardens
Boat House
A Boathouse completes the building ensemble of the Cultural gardens. The boathouse provides a social water recreational activity that is part of the tradition of Hanoi. The lone structure of the floating boathouse provides a singularly strong visual statement against the pastoral quietness of the gardens and the tranquil reflection of the lake much like a boat in the wide expanse of the sea.

The building is a glass box that sits on a horizontal plane as if floating on a raft. The effect is further heighten by having the glass box raised above the bottom box set on pilotis giving the impression of the building floating like a boat above the park.

The bottom box is flanked by two brick planes that directs the flow of the movement to and from the lake and the walls are adorned with screens in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens. The patterned screens provide visual interest that highlights the building planar composition.

Where in religion, culture and everyday life, water is in close affinity with the people of Hanoi; this contextual and metaphorical composition of floating boxes not only re-affirms but also cements that affinity.

Cultural Gardens
Music Pavilion
Part of the Cultural gardens is the music pavilion where the liberal nature of the music pavilion is envisaged to bring about an atmosphere of uninhibited and free expression of music and the arts.

The open air music pavilion is composed of sweeping simple lines, colours and materials to create soft subtle ambience that becomes an elegant setting for artistic appreciation. Against the dramatic background of the wide spaces of the lake the white stage floats in contrast to the sea of green giving the performance platform center stage

Rather than letting the pavilion disappear into the parkland, a ring of large vertical screens mark the boundary. The screens are patterned with reference to Vietnamese traditional screen patterns. Like a row of Stonehenge, the screens define the space and reduce the dramatic scale of the park to a more intimate human scale.

Cultural Gardens
Rest Room
The restrooms are a modern convenience that has been camouflaged behind lush vegetation and a new architectural form. However, traditional concepts are replayed at a smaller scale with the use of traditional red bricks and the symbolism of the moon gate as an entrance statement. The spaces are layered provoking curiousity and interest.

Cultural garden
Viewing Pavilion
Essentially a simple cube dissected by a plane by whose orientation directs the view. The plane utilises the traditional unadorned red brick to create contrast with the simple walless cube. The presence of the cube is made more dramatic by having it hovering above the ground. Creating interest on the plane wall is a detail in the manner of traditional Vietnamese screens.

Sales Gallery
Design references are made to the Temple of Literature, Hanoi, in articulating the building where the building morphology of a pair of buildings with a connecting courtyard forms the basis of the composition. The form is a simple box with a colonnade of columns at the perimeter of the buildings and the colonnade props up the roof that seems to hover above the building.

The walls of the traditional buildings are unplastered red bricks that are punctuated with rounded screen windows. Large rounded screens detailed in traditional patterns add interest to the walls. However where the building faces the lake, the lake takes precedent and the solid walls are replaced by the transparency of glass.

A set of pillar gates line the driveway in welcome announcing the arrival to the gallery.

Heritage Village
Starting the sequence of parks is the Heritage Village that celebrates Hanoi’s heritage and tradition in art, architecture, history, food and culture. The village consists of a theatre, a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms.

The Heritage Village is composed of unique contemporarised structures with historical character laid out in the manner of a traditional village reminiscent of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The layout is a series of courtyards that terminates to a main square. Colonnaded pavilion building that consists of a crafts pavilion, a tea house, F&B kiosks and restrooms flanks the courtyard whilst the theatre stands at the main square. Guarding the city is a set of pillar gates that defines the entrance to the city. The whole composition is laid in a symmetrical order.

In maintaining the traditional building manner, the form, scale and proportions of traditional buildings are adhered to. In translating the building to modern norms, the materials, style and detailing are rearticulated into modern vernacular forms. The Heritage Village provides an active glimpse into the life of Hanoi and an appreciation of its people. It is envisioned that the village may instil into the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese of their own consciousness as a people and a nation with a long and proud history.