Mediating between Architecture, Nature and Culture: H&P Architects
written by
Han Garam
photographed by
Đoàn Thanh Hà (unless otherwise ind
materials provided by
H&P Architects
SPACE December 2022 (No. 661)
Mediating between Architecture, Nature and Culture
The fourth lecture series run by SNU-MOKCHON took place at Seoul National University Museum of Art on 3 November. Motivated by improving communication between world-renowned architects and emerging Asian architects, Rafael Moneo, Liu Jiakun (covered in SPACE No. 607), Tropical Space (covered in SPACE No. 625) were invited. This year, H&P Architects (HPA) was also invited. Founding HPA with Trần Ngọc Phượng in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2009, Đoàn Thanh Hà, this year’s lecturer, pursues an architecture that respects nature and contributes to society and culture more broadly. What kind of stimulation is presented by HPA’s design attitude and architectural vision, as a practice that considers architecture, nature, and culture as important interdependent elements when building for the future?
Toigetation (2014)
HPA published HOUSES & PEOPLE in March 2022 to document their work over 12 years. Đoàn Thanh Hà said he discovered a throughline in the attitude of his architecture by tracing the trajectory of their work, marking out the inseparable relation between mind, behaviour, and language. Here, mind can be translated into thought, philosophy, and emotion. While behaviour refers to the attitude towards people, nature, and spaces. And language means an architectural language as well as more general verbal and written expression. In fact, the series explores process, looking to topics such as creating a principle through cognitive process, applying the principle to a specific object, establishing a principle of behaviour, and forging an architectural language out of a given principle. These all act as common ways forward for architects. In addition, most of HPA’s works are driven by their simplicity, which is hardly eye-catching. They demonstrate their real worth when people find that all of the mind, behaviours, and language concerning nature and culture are understated and cleverly inserted.
A Respect for Nature
In Eastern belief systems, we note the concepts of heaven’s time, geography, and unity. Mencius regarded unity as the most important factor. Departing from these three concepts, today we are more concerned the issues of climate change, environmental pollution, and polarisation. How can architects contribute solutions to these issues? Đoàn Thanh Hà thinks that heaven’s time in architecture can be represented in succession and through developments that mean time. And geography can be expanded to space, structure, and even building materials. When the concept of unity is applied to architecture, its users play the central role in every decision. However, Đoàn Thanh Hà argues, ‘As we are not supermen, we should obey the laws of nature for our survival.’ Therefore, through architecture he takes on the role of a mediator between humans and nature.
His method can be understood in natural structures, forms, and friendly materials. Structure, which is artificial but also in many ways natural, is achieved by imitating natural shapes, harmonising with the surrounding environment, and continuing the spirit of nature through its reproduction. The transition area, voids, and plants are important factors in spatial form. Transition areas create openness by naturally switching inside and outside, up and down, and public and private areas. Plants are a responsibility to pay back the green space lost to construction. On the other hand, he explained that he added the adjective ʻfriendlyʼ in front of materials
‘because we have to live a friendly existence with others as well as with nature.’ As shown in S Space (2018), Brick Cave (2017), and Floating Bamboo House (2022, covered in SPACE No. 660), HPA has used ʻraw materialsʼ such as soil, stone, and grass, ʻnatural materialsʼ such as bricks and roof tiles, and ʻrecycled materialsʼ such as PET bottles. He said architecture that respects nature can save money, reduce damage from natural disasters, and help us all cope with risk.
Đoàn Thanh Hà is an architect with a strong sense of social responsibility. Satisfying basic human needs and improving our quality of our life, he seeks to supplement the weaker parts of the economy and social culture through architecture. HPA regards basic needs as the lower level in Maslowʼs hierarchy of needs. Physiological needs are at the bottom of a pyramid, and HPA has focused on a building the infrastructure necessary for life such as educational and medical facilities. They tried to take the next step, addressing safety needs through small modular houses, and the need to belong through open space that does not break relationships.
Buildings for our basic needs are also in line with the present supply issue. HPA solves this through simplicity, flexibility, and lower costs. Simplicity refers to the application of a method that can be implemented by ordinary people without requiring special skills or equipment for construction, repair, and replacement as well as easy fabrication such as modular construction. Flexibility is the need to meet various requirements in combination, layout, and use, and the lower costs correspond to both construction and operating costs. HPA uses practical materials to support the three elements. Of the friendly materials mentioned above (raw, natural, and recycled materials), they prefer local materials which are easy to obtain. Second, they modify and apply construction technologies to the site conditions. Lastly,
locals should be able to participate, and Đoàn Thanh Hà stressed ‘It is good for the client to experience the process of construction, repair, and remodeling of his or her building.’
Lecture material about Toigetation
Tripling the Duration of Mind, Behaviours, and Language
How has a sense of mind and behaviour towards nature and culture been embodied here as architectural language? Of their masterpieces, the Toigetation series best captures HPA’s identity. As the name suggests, which is derived from the English words ‘toilet’ and ‘vegetation’, the projects have focused on basic infrastructure and nature. They began with building a toilet as part of a volunteer project for a school built in the highlands in 2014. As boarding schools are primarily in remote areas in Vietnam, they created improved bathing facilities in the bathroom. Considering the location, the supply of water, energy, and materials was designed so that they could be easily recycled or self-sufficient. Local materials, such as bamboo or recycled sewage pipes, were used during construction, solar panels were installed on the roof, and rainwater or domestic water was reused. The participation of students, teachers, and local people in construction also discloses their architectural vision. The volunteer project was extended to Toigetation 2 and 3 with an invitation from UNICEF. Despite changing situations, such as an enlarged construction area which was altered up to 4 times or moving out of a remote area, they managed to protect the main concept.
Meanwhile, they have experimented with approaches to ensure the safety of dwellings against threats such as flooding and rising sea levels. HPA’s houses of refuge feature a 6m square plan and can be built even on a small site. The dimensions are the result of the standard dimensions (3 or 6m) of structures in the primary main material, bamboo. The house is small, but its interior has been designed as a duplex to optimize the use of space and the roof is designed to collect and use rainwater. The Blooming Bamboo Home (2013) was designed using modules for massproduction and could be transformed into a classroom or medical facility for the public as well as lived in as a house. However, the house was not built on a river at that time, but sustained research recently revealed that it led to the completion of Floating Bamboo House 2 (2022). Unlike its predecessor, Floating Bamboo House, it is equipped with furniture, a bathroom, and a kitchen, complemented by a water tank containing fresh and drinking water on the bottom of its floor.
In an architecture that underscores belonging, the main principle is ʻnot to oppress people, not to separate spaces, not to close relationships.ʼ As revealed in S Space, their public projects often feature designs with openings but no doors. Taking a step forward, S Space is also designed in repentance for areas ruined by illegal mining and for the rivers that have dried up due to climate change. The image of a river was reproduced as a winding circulation, and illegally quarried and discarded rocks at construction site were collected and used to construct a wall. Đoàn Thanh Hà argued that architects should take on greater social responsibility and speak up for the protection of nature as it has been so widely exploited and destroyed in recent years. He adheres to his position towards nature even in his public architecture projects for this reason.
Concluding his lecture, Đoàn Thanh Hà expressed a certain amount of hope, suggesting, ‘Keeping the same attitude, I will try to take my architectural objects to the next level rather than remaining at a lower-level needs.’ He may consider science and technology as the springboard. This is because he mentioned the keyword ‘science and technology’ to the question of how to apply HPA’s architectural vision to the situation in Korea. To him, science and technology does not simply mean engineering fields like facilities and construction methods. He intends to use them as a tool to draw our memories back into architecture. Humans have long wanted to discover and understand their own essence, and what is close to nature is also the past, not the present. Therefore, when we prepare for a future based on the past, we will be able to grow together in line with developments in nature and culture.
