Noise, chaos, overpopulation, density...are all major dilemmas within the city of Saigon, Vietnam. Recovering from the Vietnam War in 1975, the country itself has witnessed a major shift in economic growth. In Saigon, particularly, by becoming the center of economics of the entire nation, excessive urbanization has become an obvious attachment with fast-paced, against the clock lifestyle embedded within the body and mind of many people. Therefore, this thesis retraces the history of culture and lifestyle of the Vietnamese to reintroduce an ‘interstitial datum’ within the city catering towards the public that celebrates the critical silence and contemplation values, with a hope that many souls can be healed, and social interactions can be elevated without the impact from urbanization. By constructing the thesis through an ’interstitial datum’, urban flooding and urban landscapes transformation within a larger context are also addressed through a speculative form of architectural typology.
Beautifully situated in the center of Saigon and designed by a well-known Vietnamese architect, Ngo Viet Thu, the Independence Palace once held a historic event that marked the independence between the North and the South of Vietnam in 1975 as the Northen army broke through the gate to defeat the Southern regime and the US Army. Nowadays, the Palace remains a public museum that welcomes visitors to learn about the war
This thesis reimagines the underutilized front lawn of the Palace by proposing a 12-ft elevated roof disc that acts as a piece of landscape. This disc refers to the ‘interstitial datum’, meaning that it visually appears as a flat planar surface but at the same time provides a three-dimensional portal that allows for something unexpected hidden inside itself. Therefore, below this roof, there will be an underground public bathhouse integrated with a water cistern.
Located on a site with higher ground, the project argues the need for a new form of architecture that can retain instead of draining the water down to lower grounds. With a tropical climate condition and high annual precipitation rate, the cistern attempts to hold up to 1 million cubic meters of water during heavy rain season; therefore, contributing to the flood prevention at lower ground regions throughout the city. Bathhouse program is integrated to draw public attention toward the cistern infrastructure, learning about rain and water through different stages and systems tucked below ground, while revitalizing the importance of contemplation and socializing between the body and mind
The project operates as a forest with each program being a tree on its own. This entry point (image above) shows a dramatic change in the level of intimacy from the outside toward the inside by going down the staircase. The depth of space is expanded immediately while being inverted from the ground going down
The plan of the bathhouse depicts the layout of each room in relation to one another. Each room functions as a living tree and is supported by columns to allow space at the cistern level below to store rainwater. The brighter grey poche on the plan becomes the circulation space between each room, providing a sense of flexibility and freedom for the public to move and discover the space on their own. Some major programs including, hot bath, cold bath, warm bath, saunas... are embedded to allow visitors to experience difference sense of water temperature and humidity, while becoming one with their own self by bathing
Chunk section of Cold and Hot bath (left images) shows how a typical room is formally laid and in proportion to the roof and the circulation space below while supported by column. Not only the column functions as a structural member, it also acts as a system that filters and draws rainwater from the cistern up to the bathhouse
Chunk section of Warm Bath shows a more detailed development from the early experiment, Water x Tree x Cloud (see p.9-10) using Hejduk and SANAA’s disciplines of creating forms as objects and circulatory system in relation to the sky above and the earth below, including an accessible inverted roof for rain harvesting, a warm bath, a greenhouse below that is filled with mist atomized from the water at the cistern level
These series of Warm Bath diagrams (left) depict a breakdown of each element intricately in relation to one another, while maintain a simple form and relationship on the outside. From circulation, form, space, and structural system are broken down as a set of individual parts that create a cohesive whole
The section again emphasizes the part-to-whole approach cutting through three main baths while showing a relationship to the circulation space in between. Punctures from the roof through level 1 are carefully located to allow enough daylight entering the cistern.
Occupiable space is offset to allow for daylight casting on concrete wall and penetrating deeper. A circular ramp connects the bathhouse to the cistern below
After rainwater is collected and filtered, it will be used for irrigation and as a misting system inside a greenhouse. This greenhouse aims to act as a progressive program that allows water to be furhter collected and reused in a environmentally-friendly way.
A view from the Cold Bath shows the outside-inside relationship between a circulation space and a point of arrival a shift from a darker place to a brighter space. Light wells become a critical element to bring in daylight as well as signifying a moment of spirituality and revelation during bathing
This view shows the formal relationship of the Warm bath on the right side to appear as a simple, harmonious entity to other rooms at the Bathhouse level
Base level plan indicates where water is stored. During extreme rainy season, water level might reach beyond the base level height and occupy upper floors. All public programs including the bathhouse are designed to be flexible and able to submerge in water to help with flooding issue
A view of the cistern below (image above) expresses a dramatic, almost sublime feeling by allowing visitors to look through the rooms and the sky above.
The section shows a spatial sequence from the entry point while presenting the project through a compositional relationship with the Palace, acting as a single living entity while still paying visual respect to the historic building.
Water x Tree x Cloud.
During preliminary design phase, two disciplines, ‘Autonomy of Form’ by John Hejduk and ‘Freedom of Space’ by SANAA, were examined through creating an isolated object. This housing typology reimagines housing condition in flooded regions as a living tree, bringing its occupants back to the fundamentals of nature-inspired forms to build up the relationship between humans and natural elements, retaining rainwater instead of draining it. The space forms itself with a funnel roof to capture rain from the top. Tree roots are developed into a tubing system on the ground to absorb water from street level
The middle space 4. becomes the in-between zone for re-interacting with wetness in such a way that the coexistence between humans, plants, and water becomes even more transparent. Fog room creates clouds from rain as the final output after going through filtering system from plantings, introducing a type of wetness that activates poetic atmosphere and playfulness. Ultimately, by applying a part-to-whole approach, this experiment was important to allow the thesis to develop further on a larger scale
