Beyond being a fine modernist building with great functionality achieved through clever master planning and microclimatic strategies, the General Sciences Library of Hồ Chí Minh City also encompasses a repertoire of symbolism inspired by Vietnamese traditional culture, expressed in the language of concrete, steel, and wood.
The front of the General Sciences Library with visible floating roof feature. Photo by Phạm Phú Vinh.
From abstraction of idiographic characters to sacred animals and stylized fences, the General Sciences Library of HCMC is a catalog of architectural designs inspired by a millennia-old culture entering its modern age. From the building's inception, its architects — Bùi Quang Hanh, Nguyễn Hữu Thiện and Lê Văn Lắm — sought a Vietnamese appearance for the project. In an undated report, they presented the main concepts for the project, one of which explicitly aimed for this:
“If placed in the context of an independent nation, it is essential to promote national culture in order to mark a new renaissance. Architecture would be studied with Vietnamese characteristics, both on the exterior and the interior; reading rooms, reception halls, auditoriums, exhibition rooms, and so on would be designed and decorated in the Vietnamese style.”
While possessing uniquely extravagant examples of Vietnamese modernist design, functionality regarding airflow, shade, and heat dispersal remains a priority.
The general form
The project’s emphasis on translating traditional motifs into modernist language can be seen in the general form of the building. Besides being the “archetype” of tropical modernist architecture with micro-climatic elements like double skin, or floating roof, surrounding moat and garden, the architects metaphorized traditional Vietnamese architectural forms into its new modernist expressions.
The General Sciences Library when seen from behind.
The most brilliant example is the floating roof. The concrete beams are exposed under the roof, evoking the bẩy in traditional Vietnamese houses and communal pavilions (đình). The roof’s design is also stylized by a diagonal cut, hinting at the omnipresent pitched roof. The library is thus a concrete version of a traditional đình, a civic structure of climatic comfort and cultural activities.
The building when seen from the front (left) and back (right).
Traditional imagery
The next strategy for bringing historic features into modernist language is the integration of sacred animals and characters into the design of functional elements. For example, the thọ (壽 / longevity) and vạn (卍 / light, enlightenment) letters have their calligraphic traits transformed into structural elements of the double skin. They are interlocked with one another to create a curtain, woven and wrapped around the building’s envelope to provide light and thermal comfort
Various brise-soleil features found throughout the building.
These characters’ geometry was also studied by the architects to create abstract composition for the interior space. Not only are they decorative motifs, the geometric lines also serve as a light-filtering screen with reinforced structural rigidity.
Carefully designed skylights and accents are eye-catching features when inside the building.
Besides the letters, sacred mythological animals are also included in the designs as decorative fresque. These dragons and phoenix, part of the four sacred animals (Tứ linh) reflecting the construction of the universe, are commonly seen in East Asian cultures. Their compositions were inspired by traditional Vietnamese wood engravings, with complex patterns and sophisticated figures, typically seen in the furniture designs in temples or imperial palaces.
The traditional phoenix seen from Pasteur Street is a identifying feature of the General Sciences Library when seen from behind.
Abstractions
Even though the metaphors are the most recognizable features of the library, its true genius lies more in the creative grammar that the architects adopted to abstract Vietnamese aesthetics. Abstractions stylize and reimagine complex traditional forms to create a modern look through a process of geometrical experimentation. By using pure lines and shapes, the architects managed to achieve visual harmony.
Using industrial materials, rather than recreating traditional architecture, they used abstractions to relate to a particular aesthetic of Vietnamese culture. They captured figures, patterns, and a sense of proportionality, which were extracted and simplified before being translated into functional elements. The geometrical codes of these elements, which include railings and the ground’s surrounding fences, therefore reflect the visual identities of Vietnamese traditional arts.
Gate and tower feature designs.
Its heritage
The General Sciences Library is one of the most condensed modernist expressions of traditional Vietnamese aesthetics, with symbols of philosophical significance. From the thọ and vạn letters incarnating aspirations of enlightenment and eternity, to the sacred figures representing aspects of the universe, the design inherits a traditional Vietnamese metaphysical sense of the world. It also reflects the time period’s optimism and future-oriented mindset that also embraced the past by recreating it as a means to seek new excellence for a different epoch.
Geometric patterns are found throughout the building including banisters on the front stairs.
The design lessons that Bùi Quang Hanh, Nguyễn Hữu Thiện and Lê Văn Lắm have left us weren’t a static and sealed object. It was a creative attitude which later propagated into the popular building practice that generated the mass architectural reserve of Vietnamese vernacular modernism. They provided inspiration for how abstract architectonic transformations could be taken over and reinvented by the general population as a collective knowledge of design.
In addition to serving as a great model for Vietnamese modernist ideas, the General Sciences Library is a popular place to work and study, cherished by Saigoneers today.
This building is a reflection of both cultural and political attitudes in mid-century Vietnam. It was a key period of Vietnamese modernity and its modern arts, as well as Vietnamese post-colonial nationalism, affirming the nation’s independence through architecture. This library was fortunately not alone. Multiple projects — namely the V.A.R building, the VOH Radio Building, the Independence Palace, etc. — provide significant lessons about climatic, aesthetic, spiritual and cultural identity. Unfortunately, they are neither thoroughly documented nor protected.
In the face of indifferent architectural consumerism and the ethical challenges of artificial intelligence about what it means to invent, the protection of these masterpieces is a critical anchor that will help new generations of creators navigate their creativity. A thorough documentation of these works is an essential step in the recognition and preservation of Vietnamese modernist heritage.
