‘Green Ladder’ architectural pavilion @ SCAF Sydney

3 مارس، 2018

3 7 دقائق

An architectural pavilion titled 'Green Ladder' by Vo Trong Nghia, one of the world’s ‘edgiest architects’ according to New York Post, will be on public display at SCAF (Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation) from 7 July to 10 December.
Style by Asia talks to Vo just before the opening about bamboo, his slightly unusual practice and his vision for the future.

All images courtesy of Vo Trong Nghia and SCAF.

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SCAF’s Fugitive Structures, now in its fourth and final year, was the first series in Australia to explore the potential of temporary pavilions as tools for experimentation and for investigating new architectural concepts. Dr Gene Sherman, Executive Director of SCAF comments:

"The design of this final SCAF pavilion centres around two central pillars of Vo Trong Nghia’s approach to architecture: the innovative use of bamboo, and his passion – and self imposed duty – to green the world’s urban landscapes with plants and vegetation."

Vo Trong Nghia Architects (VTNA) Green Ladder is designed to resemble a dense green forest, and to raise awareness of bamboo’s strength and viability as a ‘green steel’ building material. SCAF visitors in Sydney will be able to enter and hide amongst the elegant grid-like bamboo construction of the pavilion, exploring the installation for themselves.

VTNA delivers green spaces to concrete urban jungles – and as Vo puts it, they are ‘greening the city by architecture’. Vo was born in rural central Vietnam in a house without electricity but went on to win a scholarship to study in Nagoya, Japan before completing further studies in Tokyo. In 2006 he founded VTNA and the practice has rapidly grown since. The company is based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) where the population has reached 10 million and green space now equates to a mere 0.25%. VTNA combines traditional methods and materials within a sophisticated contemporary architecture practice. VTNA has won numerous international architectural awards.

Vo Trong Nghia Architects has won numerous awards and created highly innovative and functional buildings throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The team comprises of 60 Vietnamese and international architects, engineers and staff.

Vo has instilled a unique work philosophy into his practice, a mandatory 2 hours of daily meditation and frequent silent meditation retreats for the team.

Fugitive Structures is in its fourth and final phase – final at least within the originally articulated framework. The vision and brief were clearly defined: an intimate, functional pavilion designed by emerging architects from Australia, the Asia Pacific Region and/or the Middle East. Original architecture, experimental methodologies and a heightened visitor experience was sought.

Founder, Chairman and Executive Director of SCAF, Gene Sherman said:

Experimentation, whether in art, design, fashion or film – all of which falls under the remit of Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation – requires the capacity to accept the metaphorical highways and byways of learning by trial and error.

The design brief for the Fugitive Structures installation stated that the pavilion was to be installed across several sites (it was first shown in Brisbane) and so the firm sought to design a structure that could be easily assembled and disassembled. As part of the design process, they looked to traditional methods of ladder construction in Vietnam. They made many studies and multiple models that were narrowed down to the final concept. Images above are of the Brisbane installation.

Physical models are very important to their process as they allow for study and to test ideas, as well as check details, scale and beauty, Vo says.

Vo Trong Nghia’s work focus on architecture in relation to society rather than on buildings designed to dazzle and impress, and his practice aims to return nature to the urban environment, to connect communities at the most fundamental level.

The architect says:

Contemporary development in the city has destroyed nature and detached people from it. Our primary interest in architecture is to connect people with nature

"Our hope is that our buildings aren’t simply camouflaged by greenery, but are designed as if subsumed by nature itself", he continues. He is on a mission to encourage other creative companies throughout the region to embrace his work ethic and his environmental goals.

Here are some other projects the firm has undertaken:

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Style by Asia talks to Vo about bamboo, his slightly unusual practice, and his visions for the future:

We love bamboo, but what does the grass mean to you? Why have you decided to work predominantly with bamboo?

I don’t want to use timber in Vietnam – as all the tropical forest has been cleared and they are now going to Cambodia and Laos for timber. Bamboo is really fast growing and a very low-cost material.

You work for more sustainable practices. For example, green space now equates to a mere 0.25% in HCMC – how would you like to insert more greenery into the city (and any other densely populated one)?
How far would you like to go in your environmental push?

The most difficult thing right now is the lack of greenery in cities, the traffic and pollution. The population of HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City, editors note) is nearly 10 million. People are stressed out with the increasing population, pollution and there is a lack of clean food/vegetables as pesticides are used more and more in agriculture and farming. Flooding is also a major problem in HCMC – high sea level combined with heavy rainfall creates issues. The green roof absorbs much of this water run-off.

Each of our projects acts as a mini-park for the city –a university, school; even a house can be a pocket park.

A rooftop vegetable garden can be realised in a school for children of workers from a factory for example – they grow vegetables on the rooftop of the school for the children to eat every day. This saves costs by making a farm to provide food for the children. The parents take care of the farm. When they do this, the children can enjoy and learn about the process of farming, the basis of Vietnamese culture – agriculture. The workers are from rural areas and know very well how to plant. Because of the lack of greenery in the city, the vegetable garden is a meaningful and important feature, which is being forgotten.

Furthermore, we need to convince the government to introduce regulations for buildings in the city that they must contain a green roof and green façade to counter the damaging effects of traffic pollution.

Back to bamboo, can you please tell us more about how you have revolutionised bamboo use through newly formulated treatments so as to increase its strength and longevity of it? Is this treatment also, like the grass, environmentally friendly?

We do not use any chemical treatments, as it is not only very harmful to the environment, but also extremely detrimental for the workers. Rather we throw the bamboo into the river and soak it for three months, which removes the sugar inside. The sugar contains a lot of insects. We then burn rice husks (which would otherwise be thrown away) to smoke the bamboo. The bamboo gets stronger, and the remaining ash is excellent for soil and to grow vegetables.

Using chemicals is faster and easier but we prefer the natural process. It takes around 3–4 months.

What do you feel that urbanism take away from communities and how can architects redress the balance?

The big problem is a human disconnect from nature. Unlike Sydney, (in HCMC) we are totally surrounded and immersed within a concrete jungle and under pressure. Because of this environment people are nowadays much more stressed because they are disconnected from nature. The tension is visible in everyone. Not only architects, all of society needs to think about how to address these issues. I believe it is vital for architects to connect humans to nature.

What is the biggest challenge for urban design and architecture in the next 10 years in Southeast Asia?

South East Asia – such a huge population! In big cities it is extremely important for architects to help people to live reconnecting to nature. Not only greenery, but also light and clean air. The biggest challenge is to introduce as much greenery into the built environment as possible.

You have decided to take a rather different approach to work in your practice. Why did you decide on the mandatory 2 hours of daily meditation and frequent silent meditation retreats for the team?

In our country/city, the situation is stressful – the lack of greenery and the pollution levels makes people stressed. We need to clean up our minds, our hearts, day by day. It helps us to concentrate and be happier in ourselves. Meditation can help people connect with nature easily and the effect is very powerful. I used to have bad characteristics, but meditation has helped me a little bit day by day. Negativity is lowered and I wanted my team to benefit from this positivity and improved concentration. One hour in the morning and one in the afternoon. The usual length of concentration is 5 seconds, and after practicing meditation it can increase to 1,2, and 3 minutes.

Finally, does that mean that someone who is not used to, or willing to spend two hours a day meditating cannot work with you?

We tell them about the meditation when new staff are being interviewed – we pay their salary when they are attend silent retreats. We would not hire someone who is not open to meditation! At the beginning it is hard for the new staff to meditate but before too long they are very happy. It helps them not only in their work but in their overall lives.