C O N T E N T S [P r efa ce ] [R es ea r ch ] Abstract The story of fisherwomen - drawings Research trip to Vietnam - photos
[D es i g n] Observations and initial thoughts Design process A floating community place
[Fi n al
Tho ug ht s]
Acknowledgment Bibliography
[PREFACE]
[RESEARCH]
The story of fisherwomen - drawings The notion of empowering women through architecture, requires a keen awareness of the work that women, men, children, and elders play in a hamlet.
“ I am a fisherwoman. I am processing fish.�
Necessary tools to perform fish-processing work
A group of fisherwomen doing the fish-processing work including sorting, cutting, and icing
Tools being used in fishery markets
Fisherwomen having conversation at the fishery market while they are selling their catches
A Vietnamese fisherwoman working on boat
A floating fishing house Vung Vieng floating fishing village Lan Ha Bay, Vienam
Deconstruction of a floating fishing house
Research trip to Vietnam
Ha Noi
Ha Long
Ha Long Bay
Cat Ba Island Cai Beo Floating Fishing Village
Visited places in Ha Noi, Vietnam
[17-20 Oct 2018]
Vietnamese Women's Museum Vietnam Museum of Ethnology Vietnam institute of Green Urban Research and Development (meeting with Hoang Manh Nguyen, Associate Professor at the Hanoi Architectural University) Thay Pagoda
HA NOI
Walking through the streets of Ha Noi Observing Vietnamese women going around on their motorbikes and bikes, and also women street vendors selling fruits, vegetables, food, and art crafts
Walking through the streets of Ha Noi Tons of motorbikes, the most popular means of transportation in Vietnam
A Vietnamese woman sorting the fruits and vegetables on the street sidewalk
Street sidewalk decorations
A photographer taking pictures for the Vietnamese women’s day, Oct 20th
Walking through the streets of Ha Noi
Vietnamese men sorting the pineapples
A woman street vendor selling flowers
A Vietnamese woman cycling through the Long Bien Bridge
A Vietnamese woman selling flowers on her bike
Artistic tiles
A Vietnamese woman selling Conical hats
A Vietnamese woman selling Limes on her bike
People socializing and having street foods on the sidewalk
Having Bun cha, Vietnamese dish of grilled pork and noodle on the sidewalk
A Vietnamese woman selling fruits and vegetables in the daily market
Night market foods
Vietnamese pop-up cards
Walking through the streets of Ha Noi
A woman street vendor going around the city to sell the fruits and vegetables
VIETNAM MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY A public museum exhibiting 54 officially recognised ethnic groups in Vietnam
Inside a Vietnamese traditional stilt house, Mortel Ede longhouse
In this long house, 16 people of Mrs. HDiah Eban’s family lived together forming three small, semi-independent homes, each with their own kitchens in the common corridor
Connection details, Hmong house This house was built in 1984 in De Cho Chua A village, Yen Bai province. It is made entirely of pomu wood, a characteristic tree of the region’s forest. Roof shingles can be moved to make light for women who weave inside the house. The house was built using traditional Hmong hand forged axes, knives and chisels.
Mortel Ede longhouse The double stairways carved from logs at the entrance, one for men and one for women
People watching puppet show
Mortel Ede longhouse
Mortel Ede longhouse
Vietnamese woven baskets
Built on low stilts and made of wood and bamboo
Inside the Bahnar Communal House
Bahnar Communal House
Interior consists of a bamboo platform big enough to accommodate all the villagers. Thatched roofs are pitched at a seemingly impossible angle.
The rong is the focus of village life. It's used for meetings, solving judicial disputes and for the many Bahnar ceremonies and festivals, at which the locals wear their tribal outfits, play gongs and sing.
Bahnar Communal House
Bahnar Communal House
The wood, bamboo, rattan, and straw used for making the house were brought from the Central Highlands.
Connection details
Bahnar Communal House Connection details
Inside the Hmong house
Bamboo trees
Bahnar Communal House
Outdoor exhibition of the Vietnam museum of ethnology
The towering structures are built on stilts, and are accessed, as with the Ede longhouses, by sloping logs with steps cut into them.
Cham House, Ninh Thuan province Removable posts allow adjustable entrance door on Cham House
Connection details, Tay House
Woven bamboo wall
Woven bamboo fence
Column and Floor connection details, Mortel Ede longhouse
Inside the Mortel Ede longhouse
Thatched roof, Tay House
Column and Floor connection details, Tay House
Connection details, Bahnar Communal House
Connection details, Mortel Ede longhouse
A view to the window and woven bamboo pieces, Tay House Tay house has many wooden pillars which form the shape of the house. All the walls of the house are made of woven bamboo pieces.
CAI BEO FLOATING FISHING VILLAGE
The floating fishing houses floated on barrels
A fisherwoman hanging clothes on the clothesline
Fisherwomen cleaning the fishing nets
Fishermen cleaning the fishing nets
The floating fishing houses floated on barrels or oil drums
Oval-shaped basket boat parked in front of a floating house
Wooden fish trap baskets stored on the boat
The Vietnamese floating fishing house
The Vietnamese floating fishing house sorounded by fish farms
Entrance of the floating house
Fish farms
The tiny kitchen of the floating house
Inside the house
HON GAI FISHERY MARKET
Fisherwomen and their children selling their catches
On the boat with a fisherwoman from Ha Long Bay I met fisherwomen and fishermen on their boats in Ha Long Bay. Nhan helped me with the translation. A fisherwoman that took us to meet other fishers on their boats has 6 children, 2 of them working in the city and 4 of them wotking on the boats. She has been working as a fisherwoman for 21 years.
Fishermen working on the boat
A Vietnamese fisherman
As fishers they are working throughout the day, from morning till midnight and then they sell their catches in the early morning at 4:00 AM everyday. Through the night they will go for fishing with the big boats and they also sell their catches to big boats.
Fisherwomen cleaning and cutting the catches while selling them They have to pay about 20000 Vietnamese dong every month in order to park their boats near the city center.
Fisherwoman working on the boat
Fisherwoman selling the catches
Their boats can also be a home. They have fish cages underneath their boats. They eat, sleep, cook food, and catch marine animals while they are on boat.
A fisherman on the boat He showed me all the spaces within his boat, the tiny kitchen, fish cage, his catches throughout the day and also his kind smile
Fisherwomen selling their catches
HA LONG
Walking through the Bai Chay market
Having sea foods for a dinner at a Vietnamese family house I met a Vietnamese lady named “Nhan� on the bus from Ha Noi to Ha long. She generously invited me to her house for a dinner. She also helped me a lot with translation.
Walking through the Bai Chay market
Walking through the Bai Chay market
A Vietnamese woman selling fruits at the Bai Chay market
Observations and Initial Thoughts
[DESIGN]
The initial sketch for the functional programs of the project
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Studying the construction techniques of the boats native to the area which are mainly basket boats including coracles, and oval-shaped ones There is little official documentation about the origins of the basket boat. However, it is said that during the French Colonial Era, a variety of new taxes were introduced; one of these being a tax on owning a boat. The regional fishermen could not pay the charge, and risked losing their livelihoods. So, they came up with a plan to circumvent the tax. The indigenous fishermen successfully argued that these were not boats at all, but baskets and therefore could not be taxed. Their plan actually worked and ever since, these iconic crafts have become a mainstay in coastal Vietnam. 17 Woven basket boats have had a long tradition specifically in Ha Long Bay region. Through this project, the main intention is to bring the local skills such as basket and net weaving into effect in an architectural framework. That is, instead of using plastic barrels and oil drums as a typical way to float a project, the buoyancy aspect of the native basket boat stepped in to afloat this architectural proposal.
The initial proposed design The existing floating house
A study model was made to analyze three defined levels for the programs within the project which are the levels underneath the water level, floated on the water, and above the water. To achieve this, each level was studied in its own context. As for the floating programs, the floating houses are the primary focus.
To present the concept of having different levels in this floating project, a section model of the project site including floating houses, boats, milestone karsts, and the initial design proposal was made.
The existing floating house models
The existing floating house models
Library and study group space Dancing class A multi-purpose space: Movie nights
Design Process
Exploring the relation between programs such as library, cafe, group study space, dancing class, swimming class, and multi-purpose space Throughout the project, this relation was evolved. As for the final proposal, there are three main zones: 1) Literacy and English Learning 2) Craft learning and selling 3) Playing including net playground, cafe, and swimming pool
Vietnamese basket boats, Captured at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology All the various basket boats start as a flat woven mat. Constructed by hammering strips of bamboo into place, the boat is then coated in waterproof resin made from coconut oil, tar, or (increasingly) fiberglass. The weave of the mat changes at the turn of the bilge, which allows it to be formed into a bowl shape without folding or puckering.
Building up the project on basket boats - Initial plan sketches
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Initial plan sketches
The 3D sectional drawing of the proposed design This is a localized project and it cannot happen without local efforts and craftsmanship. Even the programs would run by local fishers.
Basket boat structural model
Bamboo joinery details exploration through the similar projects
Bamboo joinery details exploration through the similar projects
Bamboo joinery details exploration through the similar projects
Two alternatives for the bamboo joinery
A Floating Community Place at the Cai Beo floating fishing village
This thesis project seeks to empower fisherwomen of the Cai Beo floating fishing village in Vietnam. The programs are planned to help women achieving a true consciousness of their needs and interests regardless of the community’s cultural habits. The Vietnamese fisherwomen will have an equal access to the sources of knowledge through library books and available documentary films and movies. They will have a safe ground to learn literacy, english, and discuss their findings within study groups. This community place also acts as a third place for the local fishers and will provide their children a safe playground while their parents are using other spaces. Besides, the archetype of the project was influenced by the tightness of architecture and lack of horizontal surfaces in this fishing village. This community place also provides a place for local’s further reintrepretations and developments.
An Axonometric drawing exploring different scales of the fisher’s house, restuarant, supermarket, and the proposal at the Cai Beo floating fishing village
B
Cafe
Oval-shaped basket boats
Craft learning and selling
Net playgound
Study group space Swimming class
Entrance
Dancing class
A
Library
Coracle basket boats
Possible Reinterpretations by local fishers to this part of the project: 1) Changing the program to school for their children 2) Starting a tourist guide program to help women interact more in English with toursits at this meeting point
Craft learning and selling
Cafe Dancing class
Study group space Library
Swimming pool
Possible Reinterpretations by local fishers to the project: The whole project can be moved to a place closer to the touristic routes to better help them economically
Section A-A
The programs were thoughtfully organized to circulate local fisherwomen, fishermen and their children around the spaces, give them an equal opportunity to learn, teach, communicate, and observe, make them think about their current conditions, and develop the idea of changing the adverse cultural habits gradually.
Section B-B
View to study group space and library The transparency and visibility between each program allows local people to be influenced by the concept of other programs. In this rendering, women who are having discussions in the study group space can easily look through the bamboo columns and watch the playfulness of the net playground program
View to study group space and craft learning and selling zone from the entrance
Structural rendering of the craft learning and selling zone
Structural rendering of the dancing class
Final model photos
View to the swimming class, dancing class, and library
View to the central zone, study group space
View to the net playground and structure from water side
View to the basket boats which float the whole project
View to the entrance and the craft learning zone
The woven bamboo walls extended from the basket boats
View to the net playground and multi-purpose space
Structural model photos
The bamboo joinery connections and basket boat
A perpective showing the curved bamboo roof, bamboo columns, and basket boat structure
Structural model of one unit of the project
Structural model of one unit of the project
A perpective showing the bamboo flooring and the curved bamboo roof
Final Thoughts
[ACKNOWLEDGMENT]
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Mortel Ede longhouse The Vietnam museum of ethnology
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My workspace during the thesis year