Architect Mai The Nguyen’s wish to publish a handbook to introduce Hanoi architecture to foreign visitors has become true. He has brought handbooks, which were printed in Norway, to Vietnam.

Architect Mai The Nguyen and his book.

The handbook’s cover is edged in light green. His sweater also had light green. Even his name-card has a light-green background. The architect said he loves light green, the color of young rice, which he only sees in Vietnam. He always remembers that color so he has to return home every year to see that color.

Mai The Nguyen has taken many Norwegian friends to Hanoi and he realized that there are many books about Hanoi tourism, but not a book about its special architecture.

The architect spent several months to conduct research, select photos and design to create “Hanoi Architecture – An Informal Notebook of a Jumble City.”

According to Mai The Nguyen, “Jumble” is the character of Hanoi. The book introduces Hanoi’s architecture in each district, such as Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Tay Ho, Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung, Cau Giay and the Hanoi Old Quarters.

The architect did not select the most beautiful construction works in Hanoi to add to his book, but the ones that have historical value to introduce to international friends.

The Giang Vo collective quarter, where he lived in the past, is not a nice work but it is the symbol of an architectural style of the subsidy period. Other works are the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the One-pillar Pagoda, Thuy Ta, and the Hanoi Opera House.

As a handbook for foreign tourists, besides photos and an introduction about Hanoi’s architecture, there are blank pages for tourists to take notes about their feelings regarding Hanoi. The book has 120 pages, with carefully selected pictures and short captions about the history of these places.

Graduating from a natural sciences faculty of a university in France, Mai The Nguyen came to Norway to study architecture. His graduation thesis was about Vietnam’s traditional architecture. This architect was involved in the design of the Norwegian royal palace.

The architect loves Hanoi very much and he expects to introduce the beauty of Hanoi architecture to foreign visitors. Along with urbanization, he worries that Hanoi may lose its beauty because of new works.

The architect said the book is his gift to Hanoi and his mother.

(Source: TP)