Content
Introduction Chapter 1: Globalization3.0, Elements And Process 1. The Fall Of The Berlin Wall 2. From The Appearance Of The PC To The Developments Of World Wide Web 3. Outsourcing And Off-shoring Chapter 2: Philosophy Of Symbiosis - Kisho Kurokawa 1. Yin-Yang, The Principle of Interaction 2. What is Symbiosis? 3. Symbiosis of Man and Nature 4. Concept of Intermediary Space Chapter 3: Symbiosis Of Different Cultures = Interculture 1. Symbiosis Of Technology And Desert Culture 2. Hoi An - Ancient Harbour Town 2.1 History of Development and Decline 2.2 The Harbour City and Cultural Centre 2.3 Private House Unit, The Detonator Of Economic And Cultural Exchanges Conclusion Bibliography
Introduction
During this year, there was a book that really fascinated me, ‘The World Is Flat’ by the author Thomas L. Friedman. He is an author, writer and journalist for The New York Times. The book is a paperback, however I found it had interesting facts and ideas of the future. The book evaluates the globalized world, depicting interesting movements and changes of the world in the 21st century. In this century, the world is no longer Euro-centralized. The world is a united one, the ‘flat world’ where the separation of lands due to oceans, deserts no longer acts as a barrier to shared resources and information. Countries are now able to collaborate together. Since Globalization is a broad term, I would only cover its impacts on the fields of lifestyle, culture, art, design and architecture, discovering their roles in the process of globalization. Globalization has been occurring in the world for centuries, since the Roman Empire or The Silk Road that kicked off international trading from Asian countries to Europe and Africa. In ‘The World Is Flat’, Thomas L. Friedman mentioned 3 major stages of Globalization. Globalization 1.0, from 1492 until 1800, when Columbus created a widespread connection between America and Europe. This stage started the first steps of shrinking borders between countries. Globalization 2.0, started from 1800 to 2000, interfered by 2 great wars, and the Cold War. Globalization 2.0 was also a major stage of human history, during which Industrialisation occurred and the invention of the steam engine, telephone but more importantly the Internet occurred. These technological advances shrank continent borders even further. If Globalization 1.0 was about countries went globalized (finding new continents), Globalization 2.0 was about companies turned globalized (the birth of multinational companies), Globalization 3.0 is about the individual going compete and collaborate globally. The Internet enabled rapid transfer of information across the world allowing everyone from anywhere in the world to access the same digital resources of their organizations, no matter what distance thus limit-
ing the trade barriers that once existed between countries. Thomas L. Friedman called it the ‘flat-world platform’. This platform allowed the individual to ‘plug in’ and perform. The finest example is labour outsourcing of various multinational company that including DHL, McDonalds, Microsoft, Sony and so on. They employ local people in developing countries like China, India, Vietnam, Thailand to work for their companies due to cheaper labour rates compared to first world countries’. Apart from economy, trade, society, politic that are benefitting from globalization, it also has affects on local cultures and arts. There had been various attempts in globalizing cultures, particularly arts, designs, architecture, cuisines, literature. The Roman Empire set certain standards of architecture in their colonial countries as we can still see today in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, etc. In East Asia, the cultural globalization had happened through out the entire history because of colonization, trading between countries, etc. In particular, Hoi An, one of Vietnamese ancient city, that has the marks of Japanese, Chinese influences throughout the whole city (temple, residential, trading port, etc). These are examples of earliest Globalization in cultures. During Globalization 1.0, countries were finding new lands and invading new territories leading to the exchanging of culture.. This was clearly seen by the way English, French, Dutch, etc brought their cultures into their colonies and also bringing the local cultures back to the mother countries. Globalization 2.0 was a giant step in human history. Commonly termed as the ‘age of machine’ with numbers of inventions took place in technology and industry. Architecture and designs of this time had the quality of simplicity, purity, abstract and precision that celebrated the industrial society. These characteristics could be seen from the works of Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, who had been seen as the pioneers of International
Style. Later on, the machine age architecture came to the extreme in the works of Archigram, Metabolists and Hi-tech architects. From my research, Kisho Kurokawa had been discussing the similar issue of globalization in his Philosophy of Symbiosis for nearly half of his career. Evidently, Symbiosis had been an interesting topic in Japan and the West, in the fields of science, biology, philosophy, economy, design and architecture. I am interested in the ideas of intercultural architecture, or Symbiosis of different cultures that he had mention in his book, ‘Philosophy Of Symbiosis - Intercultural Architecture’. What really is a way of interpreting today culture?
Chapter 1 Globalization3.0, Elements And Process
The term globalization had been commonly used in the 1960s, but it only became popular in social science lexicon in the 1980s. The author Thomas L. Friedman had identified the history of globalization in 3 different eras: • Globalization 1.0 (1492 - 1800) • Globalization 2.0 (1801 - 2000) • Globalization 3.0 (2001 - present) In this chapter, I would like to investigate on how the contemporary world (2001 - present) became globalized, and which factors and events that really drove the world into a rich mixture of cultures. The purpose is to ask and argue how architecture has responded to this flat world. 1. The Fall Of The Berlin Wall Berlin Wall was one of the remarkable icons of Cold War. Its effects was not only dividing Germany in half but also the border between the two systems of politic, economy, culture - Capitalism and Communism. The fall of Berlin Wall was such an event that had a huge impact on the world future developments, it had flattened the world. As we know, Communism was a system that aimed to make everyone equal. Equal in possession, job, education, pension, but equally poor. Capitalism enriched everyone unequally. But after the fall of Berlin wall, there was only one system left, either Communism or Capitalism. Hence everyone had to direct themselves to follow the system of their choice. One who used to the Socialist way of living, in which everything was guaranteed, from house, education, job to pension were provided for cheap price or even nothing. They must have found it difficult to get used to the new system. But for plenty others, the fall of the wall allowed them to break free from the constraint system of Communism. Thomas Freidman notes: ‘The fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t just help flatten the alternatives to free-market capitalism and
unlock enormous pent-up energies for hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Brazil, China, and the former of Soviet Empire. It also allowed us to think about the world differently - to see it as more of a seamless whole. Because the Berlin wall was not only blocking our way; it was blocking our sight - our ability to think about the world as a single market, a single ecosystem, and a single community’ 1 The Berlin Wall event not only allowed Germany to get unified but it also had a great impact on developing countries likes Vietnam. Suffering from the post-war period and United States’ embargo, Vietnam was like a tiger broke free from its cage after the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet Union. The government’s Innovation (Doi Moi) strategies (early of the 1990s) has started international trade with the West, allowing free-market, letting foreign countries to invest into Vietnam. People started seeing the brands including Sony, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and so on, which they had never seen during war and post-war period. Alongside with economy, foreign cultures were also being ‘imported’ into Vietnam in vast amount from musics, films, to plays and cuisines. The fall of the wall not only opened up international trades, but also letting countries to pick up common standards, standard of technology, economy, manufacture and so on. These standards are fundamental elements of the globalized world. 2. From The Appearance Of The PC To The Developments Of World Wide Web The first home computer was Apple II developed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1977. Following this achievement was the first PC (Personal Computer), built by IBM in 1982. The fall of Berlin Wall had broken the physical and political barrier, one which blocking our view of the unified world. The rapid development of the PC had also broken the other important barrier, the barrier of
information limits in terms of authoring, manipulating, accumulating and distributing,. The PC had allowed individuals to be the authors of their own materials, in digital formats. That means the informations could be shared and distributed even further than before. Certainly, the appearance of the PC and development of Internet had been one of the motive forces that flatten the world. The process has never been easy to share a material with other individual as now. Before the age of information technology, you had to write or type with the typewriter on paper to create the information, then post it through postal service. It got posted through air-mail (fastest way) or ship. The recipient got it through the local post service. The process would take at least 2 days to finish. But after the Internet gone popularized, you created a file on your PC, attached it in an email, sent it across the Internet, the recipient get it through his email client, the information is distributed within minutes at a very low cost. The Internet had allowed people to connect to their parties in peer to peer (P2P) method, got rid of the middle steps. The Internet technology just did not stop there. With the development Web 2.0, people tend to be member of online communities, from Wikipedia, Ebay, Amazon, Flickr, Facebook to private organizations web sites. These web sites built with rich graphic possibilities, customizable interfaces has speeded up the process of sharing and distributing informations, knowledge, resources, creating the exchange of cultures between individuals, organizations and countries in real time. ‘Now we are going to see the real human mosaic emerge from all over the world, from left field and right field, from West and East and North and South - to drive the next generation of innovation’ 2, said Thomas Friedman. 3. Outsourcing And Off-shoring Outsourcing and Off-shoring certainly are crucial forces that had flattened the contemporary world. These factors had happened in
the world for decades. What is outsourcing and off-shoring? What is the difference between them? Outsourcing is different from Off-shoring and both are 2 forms of collaboration, between companies in different countries. Outsourcing means extracting some specific functions/tasks that the companies doing in-house, having them performed by other companies. These functions/tasks then being reintegrated back to the original companies’ overall systems. Off-shoring, on the other hand means when companies taking one of their factories abroad, have them operated by the people of local countries. These 2 operations provide companies advantages of cheaper labour, lower taxes, skills in the local countries, normally developing countries such as China, India, Vietnam, Thailand and so on. The finest example of outsourcing is Call Centre. In the United Kingdom, we must have once made a call to service companies such as British Telecom (BT), Wannadoo. The other end of the lines normally have native Indian speakers answering your calls, providing technical supports. But why India? The crucial reason is cheaper labour cost, that typical Indian employee’s average wage equal only 1/5 of the one that works in the United Kingdom. These are the factors and elements that led to the Globalization3.0 in economy, politic. What I am interested in here is how culture and architecture could interpret, represent this Globalization scene. In the next chapter, I am looking at Philosophy Of Symbiosis by Kisho Kurokawa, that is the way to interpret nowadays cultures.
1. T Freidman, The World Is Flat, 2nd edn, Penguin Books, England, 2006 , p.53 2. T Freidman, The World Is Flat, 2nd edn, Penguin Books, England, 2006 , p.75
Chapter 2 Philosophy Of Symbiosis - Kisho Kurokawa
1. Yin-Yang, The Principle of Interaction Yin-Yang is an oldest conception of Eastern philosophy. It had the great influences on other Eastern Philosophies, including Taoism, Confucianism and ancient Eastern Materialism protagonists. It summarizes the laws of interactions between objects, and within objects themselves. Everything that exists in this world has 2 different sides against each other, Yin and Yang. Yin is a very large category, it reflects the properties of objects such as: female, minus (-), soft, wet, cold, dark, void, right, even numbers (2,4,6,...), interior and so on. Yang on the other hand, reflects the properties including: male, plus (+), hard, dry, hot, bright, solid, odd numbers(1,3,5,...), exterior.These 2 categories do stand against each other but do not stand without each other in the interactions. They follow 3 principles that can be illustrated effectively by this Yin-Yang symbol. •Yin-Yang unite in Tai-Chi +Tai-Chi is the extremity, the most original essence of everything, represented by the perimeter circle. •Within Yin there’s Yang, Within Yang there’s Yin (diagram) •Laws Of Interaction: +When Yin (Yang) develops, then Yang (Yin) declines and vice versa. +When Yin (Yang) reaches the extreme, then Yang (Yin) appears and vice versa. Yin-Yang is the law of interaction between different things, contradicting but not denying, unifying but not separating. They affect each other in balance like the East and the West, the tradition and the modern, man and nature. It is the basis to clarify the Philosophy of Symbiosis by Kisho Kurokawa (interaction between different cultures, economies) that I am going to discuss in the next section. 2. What is Symbiosis? Symbiosis (Biology) is ‘an interaction between two different organism living in close physical association, especially to the advantage of both’ p1450 Concise Oxford English Dictionary On the cover page of Philosophy of Symbiosis by Kisho Kurokawa, it
Yin-Yang unite in Tai-Chi Tai-Chi
Within Yin there’s Yang, Winthin Yang there’s Yin 1. Yin 2. Yang 3. Young-Yin 4. Young-Yang
3
1
2 4
Laws Of Interaction 1. Yin reaches the extreme (the semi-circle) 2. Yang appears
notes:
‘Symbiosis, as argued by Kisho Kurokawa, one of Japan’s leading architects, is a new way of interpreting today’s culture. A philosophy which takes its name from ecological and biological concepts, it puts forward ideas developed from traditional Japanese philosophy and culture, whilst continually acknowledging the presence of our multivalent, contemporary world. As Charles Jencks states in the Foreword: ‘It is a philosophy of “both-and” rather than “either-or”, a practice of mix-andmatch rather than creation from scratch, an ethic of inclusion rather than exclusion. As such it is one of the most essential statements of Post-Modern culture to date’ 1 3. Symbiosis of Man and Nature It is interesting that Kurokawa emphasized the term ‘Symbiosis’ for the relationship between Man and Nature, instead of ‘versus’ that we normally use. Western’s ideology of living for centuries is about conquering nature The Roman built their temples out of stone with enclosed wall to fortify their space of living. The wall acts as the divider of interior and exterior space. Eastern’s ideology of living, in contrast is about making nature and human environment as a united one. Eastern architecture, particularly Japanese in this case is about making the outer space and the inner space synchronised as the continuous environment, hence there is no wall acting as the divider in Japanese traditional architecture. Partly because of the available materials in two different cultures, Western is the culture of stone and brick, Eastern is the culture of wood, bamboo. In these 2 types of materials, the permanency in each one of them is different. Stone is permanent, long lasting, but wood in the other hand is temporary, destructible. 4. Concept of Intermediary Space The concept of Intermediary Space is the important one in Kurokawa’s Philosophy of Symbiosis. He suggested Engawa is the Symbiosis of Interior and Exterior Space. Engawa (veranda) is an essential feature
in traditional Japanese house. It runs around the perimeter of the house as raised platform under the hanging eaves. It is different from Western veranda, which serves as the exterior platform, separating the outer space and the inner space. Engawa is more than just the veranda, beneath the hanging eaves, it is part of the interior of the house. At the same time, it is the exterior space from the sliding partition. It also has variety of functions, from keeping the weather outside of the interior like rain, wind, and strong sun light during summer, it is also the space to welcome neighbours, guests and the way in to the house from garden. It is the space in between, synchronizing the inner and outer space together. Kurokawa had taken this idea into practice that we can clearly see in the Saitama Prefectural Museum of Modern Art and Fukuoka Bank Main Office. He claimed, Intermediary Space creates the dynamic (effective) relationship between opposites. ‘In the West, dualisms are transcended through the dialectical method of resolving opposites on a higher level. The tow opposites are either unified into a single entity, or one of the two is negated and rejected. Symbiosis instead creates a dynamic relationship between the two elements while allowing them to remain in opposition. A relationship between two opposing elements can be achieved by placing spatial distance (a neutral zone) or temporal distance (a cooling-off period) between them’ 2 This certainly has similarity with Yin-Yang that I have mentioned above, but dualism has the absolute properties, one negates the other to develop, yin yang on the other hand has the relative properties, elements contradict each other but developing together. 1. Kurkokawa K, Intercultural Architecture - The Philosophy of Symbiosis, The American Institute of Architects Press, USA, 1991, cover page. 2. Kurkokawa K, Intercultural Architecture - The Philosophy of Symbiosis, The American Institute of Architects Press, USA, 1991, p.107
From left to right: •Kisho Kurokawa, Kyoju-so villa and Ritsumei-an tea ceremony house, Hachioji, Tokyo, 1979; engawa space running around the house beneath the eaves. •Kisho Kurokawa, Fukuoka Bank Main Office, Fukuoka, 1975; the Intermediary Space (30m height) like the engawa space beneath the eaves. •Kisho Kurokawa, Fukuoka Bank Main Office, Fukuoka, 1975; inside the Intermediary Space
Chapter 3 Interculture - Symbiosis Of Different Cultures
Kurokawa once said: ‘At certain times in history, one culture may be especially strong and can influence other cultures. At one time Egypt had such power, later, China had an equal influence. Both Rome and the British empire had their days, the power of the United States after the second world war was enormous; and in the years to come it is possible that japan may exercise a similar degree of cultural influence: but no one culture can dominate the planet. We must recognise that human life is much richer if each region has its own identity and culture, suited to its people, its climate, geography and history.’ 1 In this chapter, I am going to investigate a two examples of globalization in cultural aspect. The first example is the housing project in desert of United Arab Emirates by Kisho Kurokawa. The second is Hoi An, the ancient harbour city in central part of Vietnam. 1. Symbiosis Of Technology And Desert Culture In middle of the 1970s, Kurokawa was requested to design a city in desert of United Arab Emirates. It was an interesting experiment of practising his own Philosophy of Symbiosis, a mix-and-match of Arab and Japanese cultures, and symbiosis of tradition and contemporary latest technology. Contextually, United Arab Emirates population at the time was about 1.3 million. They encouraged Bedouin people to settle in towns and villages for easier management by supplying free housing. Bedouin were desert-dwelling people, lived by hunting and rearing livestock. This migrant community frequently moved from place to place and lived in tents, though they built sun-dried bricks for sheltering. They made it difficult for this country to be modernised, as its government wanted, providing education for young children within the community for instance, was a problem. Therefore the leaders wanted them to settle in towns and villages.
Initially, there was attempt of building free housings for the community by an American architect but it did not achieve many success. This type of two storey concrete housing that one might experience in California, or other tropical cities in America did not work in Arabian desert very well. Each household had air-conditioner and garage, but the Bedouin people did not find it comfortable. The temperature reach up to 40 degrees centigrade, air-conditioner was not very efficient for cooling in such temperatures, and it broke down. Beside the fact that inside these concrete boxes were extremely hot, due to its thermal mass, absorbing heat during day time and emit heat during night time. No one could live in these units. The owners of these set up their tents outside the American style concrete boxes and let their animals stay in there. ‘Here we see a typical case of the dogma of Modernism, based on the values of the West. According to this way of thinking, the functionalism and technology produced by the industrial society of Europe has raised the quality of human life is bound, sooner or later, to spread over the entire earth. All cultures are obliged to advance under the banner of Western civilisation; their present states are merely early stages along their delayed path of development’ 2, said Kurokawa. We can clearly that, a new culture can not be accept right away by the locals. It takes times to get involved, to be filtered, to be adopted by the locals, or creating the symbiosis of the traditional and the new one. Kurokawa’s development for this community stemmed from his observation of how the Bedouin traditionally live. They stayed in tents’ shades during day time, receiving cool breeze from the ground. During night time, they slept on rugs spread on the ground, receiving warm air from the underground of dessert. The idea for the project is designing a house that could be built by the owners themselves, the DIY method. One of his early development for the project was sand-brick, an unlimited source of material in the desert. The material of Bedouin people, sun-dried mud brick, was not suitable choice for permanency. After few years with British scientific research, they developed a process of producing sand brick that could last for decades, and easy to be made by the local community in the desert. The difficult thing is technical parts in the house itself, like electrical wiring, plumbing and especially the roof. They developed an easy way of casting thin concrete roof, by digging a hole into the sand. The holes served as the mould for the concrete mixture. For services (electricity, plumbing), they built a prefabricate doublewalled unit, consists of ducts and wire that ready to be used. The wall acts as service ‘core’ and the builder only need to arrange kitchen and bathroom close to the wall. It allows people to have different way of planning their layout, that is different from their neighbours. The other interesting aspect of the design is 15 metre wind tower with open gap at the top. The wind would blow through the gap, drawing warm air from the bottom, cool air comes in, creating a circulation of air within the house. This design was the result of the study on natural air movement within the desert, which the Bedouins had used excellently in their tents. ‘The community in Sarir represented the encounter between
From left to right: •Kisho Kurokawa, house in Al-Sarir, Libya, 1979-84 •Kisho Kurokawa, house in Al-Sarir, Libya, 1979-84; sand brick - main material •Kisho Kurokawa, house in Al-Sarir, Libya, 1979-84; exploded axonometric •Kisho Kurokawa, house in Al-Sarir, Libya, 1979-84; concrete vault for roofing
the latest in technological advances from an industrial nation and the culture of the desert, the Arab culture. In it, the scientific know-how and advanced technology which allowed us to make hard bricks out of sand combined in symbiosis with the ancient wisdom of the dessert’ 3, said Kurokawa.
1. Kurkokawa K, Intercultural Architecture - The Philosophy of Symbiosis, The American Institute of Architects Press, USA, 1991, p.92 2. Kurkokawa K, Intercultural Architecture - The Philosophy of Symbiosis, The American Institute of Architects Press, USA, 1991, p.92 3. Kurkokawa K, Intercultural Architecture - The Philosophy of Symbiosis, The American Institute of Architects Press, USA, 1991, p.94
2. Hoi An - Ancient Harbour Town What I’m using here for example of globalization informs culture, architecture is Hoi An, located in the central part of Vietnam. Hoi An used to be a bustling port city in the period of 17 - 18th century, connecting Vietnam to other countries round Asia, and the world. Merchants from Japan, China, Netherlands, France came here to trade, and brought back to their countries local goods that including silk, sugar, areca nut, aloe and other specialities that available in Vietnam at the time. Japanese and Chinese had formed their quarters inside the town, bringing their cultures, customs, habits, cuisines and architecture, creating a rich mixture of ethnicity in this town of Hoi An. Going further back in time, around the 8th century, the Arabic merchant vessels started trading frequently with China and the East (Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia). As the result, the trading activities in this area of the world increased magnificently. These countries had taken part in forming the Ocean Silk Route, that spanning from Japan in the East to Red Sea in the West. Hoi An was one of the major nodes, beside Guangzhou, Manila and Mumbai. From my own point of view and experience, Hoi An as an ancient city or cultural centre, is an interesting example to illustrate the Philosophy of Symbiosis. 2.1 History of Development and Decline History of Hoi An stretches from the Bronze Age up to today. What I want to focus on is the period of 200 years (1600-1800), to see the development and decline of this picturesque harbour town. • Prosperous Development - The Establishment Of Japanese And Chinese Quarters Japanese was the first one who set foot on Hoi An, before the Chinese. Japan was controlled by the Tokugawa Shogunate in the 17th century. Tokugawa Shogunate were monopolizing foreign trade and
gaining a large profit from it. Most of the Japanese merchants had been trading around South East Asia on the Shuinsen (Red Seal Ship - trading ship that authorized by the Shogunate). The Shuinsen started setting sail in 1604, until 1635 when the Shogunate issued Seclusion laws, there had been at least 356 Shuinsen transported goods on South China Sea. Most of them had arrived Hoi An, selling their bronze housewares, bronze coins and bringing back to Japan silk, aloe and areca nut. Japanese merchants who stayed in Hoi An for long period had brought their cultures, habits and architecture into Vietnam. They established Japanese quarter with one leader to manage the community. In 1617, an English sailor William Adams had arrived Hoi An on an Japanese boat . He noted that there had been several hundred Japanese inhabitants occupied in their quarters at the time. While they stayed here, they had built several important landmark such as Japanese Covered Bridge, Masumoto Temple (Mieu Quan Cong) and their private houses. However these private houses were burnt down after the fire in 1634. In 1635, Tokugawa Shogunate issued Seclusion laws. They closed their outbound trading, only inbound ships from foreign countries allowed. Japanese merchants were not allowed to go abroad, the export business was taken by the Dutch and Chinese merchants mostly. They bought Hizen ceramic, bronze housewares from Japan and trade these items in South East Asia area. The Japanese who stayed in Hoi An still carrying on with their trading business. They travelled to China to trade. However, the trading business from and to Vietnam was slowly taken by the Chinese at the end of 17th century. The Japanese quarter in Hoi An gradually disintegrated. At the beginning of 18th century, there had been a vast amount of Chinese emigrating into Vietnam. This was because of the unstable political policies in China at the time and economic integration policy issued in Vietnam. They mainly came from Guangdong Fujian,
Chaozhou and Hainan. Specifically, the young Chinese major got married to local Vietnamese woman. They were very skilled in trading and with the supports from their local wives, the Chinese got integrated with the bustling environment of Hoi An. The Chinese quarter in Hoi An became prosperous with the expansions of the streets, living areas and assembly halls. These architecture I will be discussing in the next section. • Decline One of the major reason that led to the decline of Hoi An is Thu Bon River. At the beginning of the 19th century, silt has raised the level of the river bed. So that heavy boats could not dock the harbour. They had to stay remain 2 kilometres from the shore line. In 1858, the French successfully invaded Vietnam, they had setup Da Nang (30 kilometres away from Hoi An) as the major harbour in central part of Vietnam. Da Nang had replaced Hoi An the role of import and export goods from and to Vietnam. In 1999, UNESCO declared Hoi An as the World Heritage. Nowadays, Hoi An is the major tourists city in the central part of Vietnam. Local people serves the tourist city by selling local handicraft products and services, from tailor clothing, cuisines to arts and design. The city takes part in exchange of cultures in the 21th century.
•17th century Shuinsen voyage routes map
From the top: •8th century voyage map of Ocean Silk Route •Islamic glass and ceramic housewares fragments found in Hoi An and Cham Islands
From the top: •17th century Shuinsen boat. •17th century Japanese Hizen ceramic fragment of a bowl •17th century Chinese and Japanese ceramic fragments.
These 2 pages showing several aspects of ordinary day in Hoi An as the cultural place and a tourist city. Opposite page in clockwise direction: •The Tourist City •Lacquer Painters •Weaving •Night Shift This page from the top: •Silversmiths •Lantern Retailer •Chinese Character Writer
Fujian AssemblyHall
Chaozhou AssemblyHall
Guangdong AssemblyHall
Hainan Assembly Hall
Yearly meeting at the Assembly Hall
2.2 The Harbour City and Cultural Centre What have remained here architecturally in Hoi An are the results of the prosperous developments. They’re the proofs of symbiosis of different cultures during the 17th and 18th century. •Assembly Halls Assembly Halls are landmarks of the city. They were built by the Chinese to memorize the origin they came from. There are 4 Chinese Assembly Halls in accordance to 4 different Chinese communities here: Guangdong (Cantonese), Fujian, Chaozhou and Hainan. The architecture of these assembly halls has a strong sense of Chinese influences in terms of spatial relationships between room - room, rooms - central courtyard. Every year now, Chinese people gather together in their Assembly halls in Hoi An to celebrate the origins where their ancestors came from. •The Narrow Alleys From Hoi An road map, we can see that all of the main roads stay parallel to Hoi An river. The narrow alleys stay perpendicular to these roads and the river. They are the links between the roads and the river. Walking through the alley would give you the views of Hoi An traditional lifestyles, the feels of tranquillity in the atmosphere. •Japanese Covered Bridge The bridge has this name because it was the entryway to the Japanese quarter. Japanese Covered Bridge is the only valuable remain of Japanese architecture, hence it is the only icon of Japanese-Vietnamese relationship in Hoi An. The bridge connects the east side to the west side of Tran Phu street. It has a roof that covered the main pathway, and a temple connects the north side.
This page from the top: •Alley way/Alley way at night •Japanese Covered Bridge Exterior/ Interior - showing timber structure and ambient light inside the bridge •Japanese Covered Bridge Elevation
2.3 Private House Unit, The Detonator Of Economic And Cultural Exchanges In this last section, I would like to examine a single private house unit. It is important to emphasize the fact that these private houses are facing the streets, or settled in urban context. It is different from what Kurokawa had mentioned, the Japanese garden house (settled in suburb context). From my own point of view, the unit is the example that summarize Philosophy Of Symbiosis into one: Symbiosis of Man and Nature, Symbiosis of different cultures and Intermediary Space. •Spaces and their functions +Front House: is the place where owner and guests meet, the place for trading, exchanging goods +Courtyard: maintaining ambient light and extracting stale air from the interior to the exterior +Bridge House: shed to store goods or housewares +Back House: bed room, living room •Yin-Yang In The Unit When I looked at the house from the outside into the inside through front door, there was different layers that overlapping each other, solid/void, structure/space, exterior/interior, light/dark, man-made/ natural, owner/guest. These are the relationships of Yin-Yang as I have mentioned above. •The Similarities Between Hoi An And Kyoto Private Houses First of all, the house has narrow facade and long depth (10m x 35m). In Japan, next to the street is the main house, then the central courtyard and finally is the back house. This hierarchy is similar to Hoi An’s, front house - courtyard - back house - kitchen & Toilet. All of them have hanging eaves space on the exterior (veranda). The distinctive similarities are: +Each of these house in the urban context had its role in the town
business, from trading to servicing. Therefore the street space is the market space. +Narrow facade and long depth is the result of urban living. These houses were ‘compressed’ to fit into a single block of the street. It created the dynamic feels of the market space due to variety in service types (shops, restaurants, wholesalers). +The inner courtyard maintains interior ambient light and extracting stale air. What interesting about the inner courtyard is when you step outside of the front house, the courtyard is the exterior of the house, but it is also the interior of the whole unit. In the courtyard, they normally grow plants, having the altar to worship nature. It is the Intermediary Space of the interior with the exterior, of Man and Nature. +The exterior hanging eaves do not only protect buyers, goods from sunlight and rain but also the important exchange space between the public space - private space, the guests - the owner of the unit. •The Differences Between Hoi An And Kyoto Private Houses Beside the similarities that I have mentioned above, there are still some differences between two of them. This is because of the unit has to adapt to local conditions. +The ground floor of Japanese house is raised up, from 40 - 50cm to protect the inhabitants from the damp and cold ground surface. On the other hand, Hoi An has the high temperature and dry hence the ground floor has to remain on the ground surface. +In Hoi An, the circulation area is at the centre of the house, connecting front house with back house through the courtyard. It creates the symmetrical composition on the facade. In Japanese house, the circulation area stays on one side, next to the party wall hence the asymmetrical composition on the facade.
Bridge House
Front House Courtyard
Back House
Kitchen&Toilet
Bridge House
Back House
Courtyard
Front House
Hoi An Housing Unit
Bridge House
Back House
Courtyard
Front House
Kyoto Housing Unit
Top drawings •Plan and section of a housing unit in Hoi An •Sections comparing Hoi An’s unit with Kyoto’s unit. It shows the similarity in spatial arrangement and differences. Bottom images from left to right: •Hoi An street front •Kyoto street front •Hanging eaves: intermediary space between the exterior and the interior
Conclusion
Globalization has been an interesting topic to research into, in economical, political and cultural aspects. Globalization in economy leads to globalization in culture. In the culture exchange, advantage points will be taken but disadvantage points will be negated. From my point of view, studying culture is an endless task for the architect. It starts from visiting places, observing and documenting people’s day to day habits and customs. After visiting Hoi An, I recognize that culture has been the force driving the city today. Having nothing beside existing remains of the ancient streets, Hoi An people have been working untiringly during the restoration process, improving services to make the town an interesting tourist spot. Culture truly is the motive force that driving the town. Studying philosophy of symbiosis give me a better understanding of my native culture, Eastern culture. However, there’ still a lot to know. Nowadays in Vietnam, with the advantage of the Internet, the young generation integrate with new cultures really quickly. It is the problem that the older generation concerns, because they are running to the modern at high speed, leaving the traditional essences behind. It is very important to keep the balance between old and new, tradition and modern, just like Yin-Yang.
Bibliography
1. Friedman T, The World Is Flat, 2nd edn, Penguin Books, England, 2006 2. Kurkokawa K, Each One A Hero - The Philosophy of Symbiosis, Kodansha International Ltd, Japan, 1997 3. Kurkokawa K, Intercultural Architecture - The Philosophy of Symbiosis, The American Institute of Architects Press, USA, 1991 4. Harvey D, The Condition of Post Modernity, Blackwell Pupblisher Ltd, UK, 1990 5. Showa Women’s University, Architecture Of Hoi An - Vietnam, Vietnamese edition - Vol.3, The Gioi Publisher, Vietnam, 2006