Nguyet Minh hopes the project will come true in the future to promote Hue culture and tourism

Being not only an excellent graduate dissertation, her project has also won third prize at the 2020 Loa Thanh award, organized by the cooperation of Vietnam Federation of Civil Engineering Association (VFCEA), the Vietnam Institute of Architects (VIA), the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Ministry of Construction.

With the simple title of "Thanh Tien Cultural Space", Phan Thi Nguyet Minh, an alumna of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Science (Hue University), transmits all of her love, passion and enthusiasm into the project with the hope for the famous craft village of Hue to become more and more popular.

Upon graduation, Nguyet Minh is already busy with her own job. Yet, her memories and emotions when her project was announced at the award have not been faded.

“Thanh Tien Paper Flower is a craft that appeared very early, in comply with the needs of folk belief, deeply ingrained in the subconscious of Hue people. However, the craft is facing extinction due to the changes of modern society,” Minh said about the motivation to urge her to carry out the project.

Spending many times to come to the village downstream of the Huong River to visit and to have fun, Minh has been captivated by the beautiful paper flowers. She spent time chatting with the artisans, researching on its origins and history and becoming even more in love with the values of paper flowers. It motivated her to do something, to preserve and develop the paper flower village from the risk of extinction and further to let more people know about this Hue's cultural form.

According to Minh, "Thanh Tien cultural space" is a project with complex functions for learning, researching and promoting culture in Thanh Tien village. There will be space for exhibitions and cultural exchanges. Once this space comes into being, it is hoped to create jobs and increase income for participated people and artisans.

 “But more than that, what I intend is to promote the values of the craft village in the long term, then promote the culture, and bring economic benefits to the province. Of course, it includes improving service quality, promoting tourism to become an attractive destination and serving research work,” Minh expected.

Minh chose a large islet located in the middle of the Huong River to be the location for the project. Her reason is that it’s the perfect place with harmony between man-made and natural structures, which helps the architecture of the building enable it to affect the presence of the scenery.

In particular, the architectural concept of the project follows to the pattern of paper flowers. All motifs of the paper flowers will also be stylized to represent the graceful lines of 8 traditional flowers in five colors...

Throughout the space structure, there will be pedestrian routes leading visitors through each function room with decorated objects being mainly with boats as a means to help them imagine the presence of the boats carrying flowers to the city. Minh uses neutral colors, brown and yellow and materials such as wood and bamboo for decoration in the space to create a warmth and familiar atmosphere.

“What appears throughout in the structure of the space is random but calculated. There, visitors can freely choose any activities, with the aim of bringing interesting experience, stimulating their curiosity, imagination and creativity…,” Minh shared.

Story and photo: NHAT MINH