He has designed and restored a number of religious projects, including a statue of Lord Buddha Sakyamuni in Vinh Phuc Province, the Van Son Zen Monastery, Quoc Mau Au Co Temple in Phu Tho Province and a wharf and monument for revolutionary martyrs along the banks of the Thach Han River in Quang Tri Province.

Hoang Dao Cuong talked with Vietnam News about his job.

Could you please tell readers what motivated you to choose cultural monument conservation and restoration as a career?

This is the tradition of my family. As you know, my grandfather was a cultural researcher who had a great love and passion for national culture, especially the culture of Ha Noi. My father is also an architect as well as an architectural critic who majors in researching ancient architectural works. The love of this career has always been in my blood. I’ve had a strong attachment to this job for around 15 years, and the more I get involved in my work, the more I enjoy it.

You graduated from the Ha Noi Architectural University, where there is no Faculty of Monument Conservation and Restoration. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this career?

First off, I gained a basic knowledge of architecture from my teachers at the university. Furthermore, I am lucky to have my grandfather and father as experts in this field. They imparted a lot of their understanding and skills, which have helped me a lot in my career. In my opinion, the only disadvantage was that cultural history and architecture were not taught in my university, so I had to research and learn these things by myself. But misfortune has its up sides; my grandfather and father are masters of history and culture, as well as cultural architecture. Therefore, I inherited a lot of knowledge from them.

I’ve also had chances to visit many countries in the region that have similar cultures and architecture to Viet Nam. I’m confident with what I have experienced and accumulated in the past 15 years.

It’s said that in all the projects you have designed, specialists appreciate the Quoc Mau Au Co Temple the most, which achieved second place in the Vietnamese Architectural Awards in 2004. Which of your projects do you like the most?

From the very first day of my career, I’ve always thought that with each work, I have to try my best to complete it. Every job I take on brings me happiness and passion, and each job that I finish brings achievements to my career. Therefore, I am satisfied with all of my projects.

However, if I have to choose one out of all of them, I will say that it is Bai Dinh Pagoda. In the past, most pagodas were very small, and were built only for locals. Nowadays, pagodas serve the spiritual lives of people everywhere, so they have taken on regional and even national statures. Bai Dinh Pagoda is among the largest, and it required great efforts and skill on the part of the architects.

So could you tell readers more about the trials and tribulations of designing Bai Dinh Pagoda?

There are a few large-scale pagodas in some regional countries that have similar cultures to Viet Nam. As I said before, I had a chance to visit some of these countries, such as China, India, Myanmar, so I was able to learn from my experiences how to apply the cultural as well as the architectural features into Bai Dinh Pagoda. That was very convenient for me.

However, my co-worker, architect Nguyen Ba Tuan, and I had to create the new features to make them suitable for the historical and cultural characters of Viet Nam.

The biggest difficulty we had to face in the designing process was that although it was a large-scale pagoda, those who were going to use it were just normal people. Therefore, balance was very important. We had to make the dimensions of the pagoda big enough to cover the largest Buddha statues in East Asia, but also have them fit harmoniously with the statures of the people. This was really a difficult problem to solve.

Furthermore, despite the fact that Bai Dinh Pagoda has regional stature, it still bears national features. Accordingly, we have to place Vietnamese-specific traits within it, as well as some general characteristics of the whole region, so that Vietnamese people will not feel as if they are in another country when inside.

What do you think are the most important features of a newly-built project?

Even now, new projects should aim to conserve cultural factors and values. I think that effective cultural architecture is not only beautiful, but also useful and serves the demands of the majority. Furthermore, the most important point is that the work does not forego any spiritual or national values.

Being born into a very famous family, have you ever been afraid that you will not be as successful as your grandfather and father?

My grandfather wrote books on culture and my father was a critic and wrote books on architecture. Their names are famous everywhere, but I am different. I chose my own way of silently observing and studying. I chose not to be rowdy, and not to argue or object. I strongly believe that I have enough knowledge and competence to go the right way. However, I’m quietly open to new ideas, to people’s praise and criticism. And I have my father as a wonderful consultant.

For me, design and creation are my passions, not ways to become famous. I am successful when I am put in charge of more and more cultural or architectural projects, and effectively completing them.

Do you have any advice for younger generation who wish to follow in your footsteps to become architects of cultural conservation and restoration?

For those who want to pursue this profession, they should consider conservation and restoration of cultural heritages and monuments as a science that requires high levels of passion and responsibility. They must know that intervening in architectural heritage does not mean changing it; their job is to maintain the ancient features through restoration. To do this, they should spend their time and effort studying the wide knowledge of national culture and architecture. If not, restoration will become difficult and finished projects will be superficial.

VietNamNet/VNS