20th-century houses on Phu Quy Island

Phu Quy is an island district belonging to Binh Thuan province, located about 100 km from the provincial capital Phan Thiet. It boasts a pristine and rich ecosystem, and the lives of its people still retain many traditional and rustic features, instead of being swept away by the allure of the tourism industry.

During the French colonial period, Phu Quy was known as Poulo-Cécir-de-Mer (Island of the Sea). Today, Phu Quy is an ancient island with approximately 30,000 inhabitants, and is the only place in Vietnam where high school graduates must travel by boat to the mainland to take their university entrance exams.

Besides its scenic beauty, one of Phu Quy's most unique features lies in its architecture. Along the roads of Phu Quy island district are rows of single-story houses, most of which bear the distinctive style of modern architecture from the mid-20th century.

The imprint of the 20th century in these houses.

Although the houses here are considered "modern architecture" because they are made of industrial materials, they do not reflect the principles of modernism. Instead, they seem to have been created based on decisions that were purely... emotional. This contrast reveals the distinctive Vietnamese cultural characteristics in architecture.

The houses in Phu Quy Island use washed stone as an outer covering for the supporting columns and facades, geometric ventilation blocks, and designs and decorations that bear a strong personal touch, such as stylized railings, flowerbeds, sunshades, wind chimes, iron window frames, trellises, etc. All of these are common features in the modern architectural movement of Vietnam, but they bear the distinct mark of the country and transcend the boundaries of global modernism.

and unique aesthetic nuances

Nevertheless, the modern houses on Phu Quy Island also possess their own unique aesthetic features. Perhaps the most striking is the carving of numbers on the facades, as a way to commemorate the construction year. The numbers range from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, although most of these houses appear to have been built in the 1980s and 1990s.

According to Pham Phu Vinh, a researcher and author of a book analyzing modern Vietnamese architecture, adding a year to house designs can be purely for aesthetic or emotional reasons, to commemorate the "birthday" of their beloved home.

“The numbers might just be for decoration, but I think their appearance also shows the strong development of modern architecture in the area,” he remarked. “Around the mid-20th century, Saigon residents had a higher financial capacity for building houses, but this was rare in rural areas. Therefore, rural houses held even greater value for their owners because they had probably worked their whole lives to build one.”

It wasn't until the late 20th century that residents in the suburbs and rural areas of Vietnam could afford to build houses. Therefore, the houses on Phu Quy Island also differ from those built in the 1950s and 1960s. While still influenced by mid-century modern architecture, there are some structural variations, such as an increase in decorative elements, the use of more materials beyond washed stone, and the use of different fonts.serifgive the numbers, insteadsans seriflike in previous decades.

Mr. Vinh argues that during this period, the appeal of Western modernism gradually diminished compared to the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and therefore the materials began to change.

In reality, there is no formally compiled set of rules regarding modern house construction. For decades, contractors and homeowners have designed their buildings however they wished, as long as they made the best use of available materials and satisfied their personal preferences.

In Saigon, there are a few areas where houses built during the same period are concentrated, exhibiting a more consistent style and a tendency towards design similarities with the surrounding neighborhood. Meanwhile, in more remote southern areas, such as on Phu Quy Island off the coast of South Central Vietnam, the isolated "clusters" of private houses possess a distinct character compared to modern Vietnamese architecture from the mid-20th century.

These transformations in architectural styles introduced into Vietnam reflect the values ​​of the new, modern Vietnamese people. They demonstrate that the Vietnamese people not only passively accepted a new architectural style, but also actively transformed their own architecture by assimilating these new values ​​with their own individuality and character.

Huyen Chau