What role has French architecture played in Ha Noi's architectural identity?

French popular styles influenced the creative work of French architects, who then tried to adapt these styles to Viet Nam's tropical environment. The result was a unique elegance: The "Indochinese Architectural Style." The buildings created by these French architects and by Vietnamese who adapted the style ever further are part of Ha Noi's architectural anc cultural heritage and, in particular, add to the richness of the canital's "French Quarter."

Where is the "French Quarter"?

During colonialism, a Vietnamese person stepping into Ville Francaise (the French City) - which was sometimes also known as Khu phố Tây (the Westerners' Quarter) - felt like a foreigner in the capital of his own country. Today, Hanoians still refer to that sector of the city as the "French Quarter."

Trang Tien street

The French Quarter's main artery is Trang Tien Street, once called Rue Paul Bert in honour of the French resident general of Tonkin in 1886. Trang Tien was famous during the colonial era for its imposing department store - Les Grands Magasin Reunis on the corner of Trang Tien and Hang Bai Streets - as well as its cafes with live music, its luxurious hotels and restaurants, chic cinemas, and, of course, the majestic Municipal Theatre. During colonialism, the spacious nearby avenues also bore French names, such as Boulevard Gambetta (now Tran Hung Dao) named for French Prime Minister Leon Gambetta (1838-1882) and Boulevard Felix Faure (now Tran Phu) honouring the president of the French Republic from 1895 to 1899. The magnificent trees and lavish neo-classical villas on these streets contrasted with the Ancient Quarter's narrow, compact lanes devoid of trees and teeming with Vietnamese residents.

When the War of Resistance Against France ended in 1954, Vietnamese reclaimed the Westerners' Quarter. However, Viet Nam soon faced another war, this one against the United States. When that war ended in 1975, a collective feeling developed in Viet Nam around the need to preserve Ha Noi's architectural heritage, including the citadel, the Ancient Quarter, and the French Quarter. Over the years, many governments, organizations, and foreign individuals - including both French and Americans - have participated in the preservation of Ha Noi's French architectural heritage.

In 1875, the French secured the heart of the Westerners' Quarter on the banks of the Red River as part of a military concession after they first occupied Ha Noi. The French Quarter gradually extended to the south of the Ancient Quarter and spread its checkered pattern of streets to the east of Hoan Kiem Lake until it reached the Red River Dike, thereby forming the current shape of the southern part of today's Hoan Kiem District.

Hoan Kiem was and is the hub of Ha Noi's administrative, economic, commercial, and public-service sectors. Its examples of remarkable French architecture include Saint Joseph's Cathedral (40 Nha Chung Street, designed by an unknown architect and finished in 1883); the Municipal Theatre (a smaller version of the Opera House in Paris designed by Charles Garnier, 1 Trang Tien Street, finished in 1911), the Government Guest House (12 Ngo Quyen Street, formerly the Residence of the French Resident Superior of Tonkin, finished by architect Auguste-Henri Vildieu in 1911); the General Office of the Labour Union (formerly the Railway Company of Indochina and Yunnan, 65 Quan Su, finished by an unknown architect in 1902); the Supreme Court (48 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, built between 1900 and 1906 by Auguste-Henri Vildieu); the History Museum (formerly the French Institute of Oriental Study Louis Finot Museum at 1 Pham Ngu Lao, built by architect Ernest Hebrard between 1925 and 1932), the Pasteur Institute (1 Yersin Street, finished by architect Gaston Roger in 1930), as well as many magnificent private villas.

During colonialism, the Western Quarter also covered a vast area beyond the citadel that was limited on the north by West Lake and on the west by To Lich River. Today, this extension is in Ba Dinh District and includes many examples of French architecture: the Presidential Palace (formerly the French Governor General's Palace on Hung Vuong Street, designed by Auguste-Henri Vildieu, completion date unknown); the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (formerly the French Bureau des Finances at the end of Dien Bien Phu Street, completed by architect Ernest Hebrard in 1931); the Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (formerly Lycee Albert Sarrault at 1B Hoang Van Thu Street, completed in 1919 by Verneuil & Gravereaud), as well as many fine houses that are now embassies.

How did French architects influence Ha Noi's landscape?

Architect Christian Pedelahore spent much of his childhood in Viet Nam and wrote a thesis, "Ha Noi, objets, acteurs et metamorphoses d'un espace singulier: syncretisrne architectural et pluralite urbaine (1873 - 2000)," in which he characterised the French influences on Ha Noi's contemporary architecture. His analysis has been a major source for the summary that follows:

The Beginnings - From Military to Civil, 1873-1910

In 1873, Francis Garnier dismantled the Ha Noi Citadel, which was to have been restored the following year in exchange for an allotment of land on the Red River banks at Đồn Thủy near the end of Tran Hung Dao Street. French officers designed plain, unadorned buildings with verandas on all four sides. In 1882, Henri Riviere took over the citadel project. A year later, armed troops built a road joining the citadel and the concession. The French drew up plans for a cathedral, the first colonial houses south of the city, and the clearing of land surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake. In 1885, they began building military quarters inside the citadel, where royal and mandarin buildings had once stood.

The French Public Works Section of the Civil Service began its first large-scale construction projects with the arrival of the first French governors in the 1880s. These projects changed the face of Ha Noi. A broad boulevard, Rue Paul Bert (formerly Pho Hang Khay, now Trang Tien Street), expanded the French Quarter to the east on land gained by filling in ponds between Hoan Kiem Lake and the Red River. Construction continued with the creation of three more boulevards: Rollandes (now Pho Hai Ba Trung), Carreau (now Ly Thuong Kiet), and Gambetta (now Tran Hung Dao).

Between 1880 and 1890, Western rationalism mixed with Eastern philosophy to create a hybrid culture in which Ha Noi's architecture foreshadowed the Indochinese Architectural School of the 1930s.

A second stage of urban development emphasized construction of State buildings no longer randomly set in different neighborhoods but, instead, built in specific areas, giving the city shape and harmony. Arch itect Auguste-Henri Vildieu, as designer for a colonial regime anxious to assert its power, renounced the utilitarian rationalism of the 1880s. He relied on the solidity and decorative vocabulary of neoclassical architecture to demand attention from the Vietnamese masses.

Between 1892 and 1906, Vildieu designed the Post Office, (1 Le Thach completed in 1896) the French Army Division Headquarters (28 Ly Nam De, finished in 1897); and the Hoa Lo Prison (better known internationally as the "Hanoi Hilton" at 1 Hoa Lo, finished in 1899).

Hanoi Hilton

He designed his more grandiose buildings after 1900, including the Supreme Court (48 Ly Thuong Kiet, 1900-1906), the French Governor General's Palace (Hung Vuong Street, 1901¬1906), and the Residence of the French Resident Superior of Tonkin (12 Ngo Quyen, completed in 1911). Colonial construction reached its peak with construction of Ha Noi Municipal Theatre, a neo-classical palace, which encumbered the French budget for more than ten years.

Ernest Hebrard and Local Architecture - The 1920s

Ernest Hebrard took up his duties in Ha Noi in 1923 at the Central Services of Urban Planning and Architecture and initiated a renewal and expansion of colonial architecture. While serving as city planner, he envisaged a new governmental administrative area beyond the Governor General's Palace to the south of West Lake. He also planned to reunite the already existing administrative services and build new ones to extend the city westward to To Lich River and eastward to the Red River. However, his vision required too much capital at a time when the French economy was weak. Nevertheless, his plans remained the official reference until the 1940s and provided inspiration and guidelines for later projects by Louis-George Pineau.

As an architect, Hebrard dedicated himself to three main projects: The Indochina University (now Ha Noi University at 19 Le Thanh Tong, completed in 1926), the Bureau des Finances (now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the end of Dien Bien Phu) Street, completed in 1931) and the Musee de The History Museum.

The History Museum

l'Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient (now the History Museum, 1 Pham Ngu Lao, built between 1925 and 1932). He used his knowledge of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Khmer architecture in an attempt to convey the essence of local cultures through architecture and simultaneously to demonstrate technical mastery of a specific environment. He sketched the framework of the contextual architecture that came to be called "the Indochinese Architectural Style."

Modern French Architecture in Ha Noi -1930-1945

The Indochinese Architectural Style begun by Hebrard at the end of the 1920s led to a relatively limited number of buildings because State commissions commissions were tapering off. However, the construction of private villas became a lucrative opportunity for the privileged few architects who created a resurgence of designs during the 1940s. The most noteworthy of these architects was Arthur Kruze, a professor and director of the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts de l'Indochine. He recaptured the fundamental elements of the Indochinese Architectural Style while building villas for a French and clientele. Architects appointed completed villas in the residential area of Avenue Carnot (now Phan Dinh Phung) near the Governor General's Palace as part of a Credit Foncier real estate scheme.

Kruze and George Trouve appointed architects to build the Bank of Indochina (49 Ly Thai To Street, completed in 1930) and the Credit Foncier Office on Trang Tien Street. The temperate Art Deco modernism of these two buildings retained only a few principles of composition from the Indochinese Architectural Style, notably the tri-partition of bays. They have a certain heaviness and oversimplification foreign to Hebrard's work.

Soon, a group of young Vietnamese university graduates replaced this trend with a more avant-garde and international vision. These first Vietnamese architects had received a top-level, individualized education divided between the study of ancient buildings and exposure to new European ideas. However, the French excluded Vietnamese architects from designing State buildings. Instead, the Vietnamese built their reputations by creating private villas, thereby cementing the important role of the Fine Arts College in creating new architectural styles.

Within ten years, Vietnamese architects had built more than one hundred villas combining isolated rationalism and freer compositions. They integrated into their designs overhangs for thermal purposes, covered staircases, curved facades, terraced-roofs, and circular windows and also used Asian-inspired ornamental plaster and paint on the exteriors. By doing so, they created a modern quarter and changed the look of Ha Noi. These villas are concentrated on the main arteries south of the Old Citadel: Le Hong Phong Street (the Romanian embassy at #5), Tran Phu, Street (the Singaporean embassy at #41-43 and World Wildlife Fund at #53), Ly Thuong Kiet Street (the Cuban embassy and residence at #65 and the National Atomic Laboratory at #59), and Tran Hung Dao Street (the French, Indian, and Cambodian Embassies at #s 57, 58, and 71 respectively, and the Elders' Club at #91).

L. G. Pineau and Functional-Contextual Urban Planning - 1930-1945

L. G. Pineau arrived in Ha Noi in 1930 to face a colonial government more concerned with administration than development. The time for large-scale construction projects had passed. Pineau, who was more at ease with urban planning than architecture, concentrated on renovating historical neighborhoods by analyzing every city block and working with existing structures. In addition, he conceived the western and southern growth of Ha Noi. Pineau's L'Urbanisme en Indochine (1943) defined a philosophy of contextual intervention by recognizing the pertinence, function, and culture of a mercantile city and accepting its fundamental heterogeneity. Urban planning in Ha Noi shifted from the prioritised programmatic rationalisation of commerce and climatic conditions in Hebrard's masterly architecture to Pineau's questions about civilisation and the preservation of traditional lifestyles.

In 1940, the Japanese took over Indochina but kept a French administration until March 1945. During the Japanese occupation, the French upper echelon began to use architecture as a "social corrector." Jean Decoux, who served as French governor general during this period, attempted to reinforce French power by constructing huge State buildings. Designers tried to bring back the hybrid theme so important to Hebrard. However, the demands of the time gave way to an official style favouring massiveness and symmetry within the limits of a strongly regulated functionalism but with curved roofs to express the city's "Vietnameseness."

How did East meet West in the design of the History Museum in Ha Noi?

Ernest Hebrard, a French architect, designed Ha Noi's History Museum, which is known to older generations as the Louis Finot Museum and was once run by the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO). EFEO provided Hebrard the means to research different elements of Asian architecture and to rework and integrate them into a blend of tradition and modernity. His personal inspiration and style strongly influenced the project, while his preference for Art Deco rather than neoclassicism helped him move away from excessively formal Asian pastiche.

Hebrard was the first person to try to free architecture in Wet Nam from both the French formal neoclassicism of the early 1900s and the simple imitation of local monuments. He was also the first person to emphasise the transposition of spaces or surroundings rather than architectural details. He searched for the principles of composition underlying Viet Nam's scholarly architecture as represented by the different pagodas and đình (communal houses) in the north of the country. The museum displays a dual architectural character through a system of posts supporting a heavy, over-flowing roof with both its exterior and underneath profusely decorated.

The roof is the main focus of attention because it extends a levitating shadow to protect the structure below. The impression of immaterial fineness is created by the shadow thanks to the transposition of spatial effects and techniques in the building. By relying on double posts, beams, and lintels, Hebrard was able to use the bricks and plaster common in the colony. He blended fine details of Art Nouveau with Vietnamese traditional architecture in skillfully chiselled corbels, wide beams, and indented spaces decorated with motifs and panels arranged like traditional Vietnamese parallel sentences. Hebrard's strong artistic conviction in building the Museum initiated a style of scholarly architecture that was both national and international and came to be called "Critical Regionalism."

How did East meet West in the life of the first (and at the same time, the last) Vietnamese architect of the generation before the French War?

Mr. Ngô Huy Quỳnh was the last surviving graduate in architecture from the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts de l'Indochine, which was the first and only French college in Viet Nam for training Vietnamese painters, sculptors, and architects. Although we can never know for sure, Mr. Quỳnh's life story as told below may contain the reason part of Viet Nam's capital was not moved during the 1970s as planned, from its locus "inside the river" (the meaning of Ha Noi's name) to the midlands of Vĩnh Phú Province.

Mr. Quỳnh summarised his life work:

"I consider myself as an architect who is Vietnamese to his core but who had a chance to absorb the best of Western influences. I was born in 1918 into a Confucian family. My father was assistant to a district mandarin in Bac Giang Province, fifty kilometres north of Ha Noi. My mother taught me Chinese ideographs. I had a brother and a sister. After my father died when I was ten, my brother took care of the family by working as a civil servant. We followed my brother's different assignments to Nam Dinh, Quang Ninh, and Hai Phong.

When I was small, I liked painting trees, plants, and flowers. Two friends and I took art lessons while we were in secondary school in Nam Dinh. I came to Ha Noi in 1938, when I was eighteen. I wanted to study fine arts but took the entrance exams for both fine arts and architecture at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts de I'Indochine. There were only five openings for each course. I finished sixth for fine arts but first for architecture. And so, I became an architect.

I stayed with a family near the school and paid the landlord nine (king a month for room and board. I didn't have many friends at school because most students came from rich families. I was too poor to pay the tuition, but the school never asked for it. I attended classes during the day. In the evening, I tutored children of rich families at their homes to earn money. After that, I did my homework until midnight. I loved music and would stay up playing the guitar and singing until very late. One day, I came home to find that my belongings had been searched. Only then did I discover that I'd been sharing space with the editorial board of the communist newspaper, Notre Voix (Our Voice). Whenever I went out, secret agents working for the French followed me.

The Students' Association of the University of Indochina had a magazine. I became its chief editor in 1941. One day at a meeting, I saw the rector of the University give a copy of the magazine to the dean of my school. My school discussed my transgressions at a special meeting, where the main accusation against me was that I was too 'critical' of fine arts in Indochina. However, I was able to defend myself. The disciplinary committee asked that I submit a written apology, but I didn't. I was surprised they didn't kick me out. I guess that, apart from the fact that I was a bright student, my teacher Mr. Arthur Kruze had put in a word for me with the dean. By the way, it's Mr. Arthur Kruze who designed the building that is the office for The Gidi (World) Publishers at 46 Tran Hung Dao Street.

I continued painting. Once, two students from the Fine Arts Department and I held an exhibition and sold all our paintings. Each of us collected about 300 đồng, enough to take a painting trip to Hue, where we enjoyed excursions to various places by boat. After a month, my friends returned to Ha Noi, while I went on to paint in Sai Gon, Da Lat, and then Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

When I was in my third year at the Ecole Superieure, a friend introduced me to a rich man who later asked me to design a villa on what's now Nguyen Du Street in Ha Noi. At the time, I was studying Vietnamese pagodas, so I sketched a house with a curved roof like a pagoda. He liked it and asked me to supervise the construction. Every day, I went to class but sneaked out through the window to visit the construction site. Since I had never studied the elements of building structure, I urged the engineer to share his knowledge. After listening to him, I wrote right on the walls the instructions for him to follow.

One day, when I arrived at the site, I sensed something unusual. I checked the height of the walls and found they were two bricks higher than my design. I asked who had decided to raise the height. The engineer said it was the owner's idea. I told the engineer to lower the walls by two bricks or else I would drop the contract. When I came back to check, he'd lowered the walls to the original design. The house was among the first designed by French-educated Vietnamese architects for Vietnamese in Ha Noi. It is still at 84 Nguyen Du Street. Part of the building is a cafe, and part is an office.

War broke out after I graduated, and our school was closed. I was among its last graduates. I joined the anti-French forces at their resistance base and took responsibility for designing their headquarters.

After the French left in 1954, I became responsible for urban architectural planning for our government and was asked to plan the development of Ha Noi. In 1956, I drew up a map showing the potential development of Ha Noi, including the eastern side of the Red River. Ha Noi has been expanding on that side of the Red River since the early 1990s, but I don't know if the city's leaders have consulted my plan.

During the early 1960s, I led a team of three hundred Vietnamese workers to design and construct the headquarters of the Lao Revolutionary Movement in Khang Khay, near the Plain of Jars in Laos. I remember that during the 1970s there was talk of moving part of Ha Noi to the hilly area of Vĩnh Phú Province so the expansion of the capital wouldn't encroach upon farming land. I presented a report justifying the need to keep the capital where it was. This report was also sent to different government agencies, including the prime minister's office. Later, senior management approved the plan to move the capital. A friend of mine published my report in the National Architecture Review. I was accused of opposing the approved plan and faced a special disciplinary committee. I showed that I had written my report before the plan's official approval, and so I escaped unscathed. As you know, the capital was never moved and remains inside the Red River."

What are the special features of the Ha Noi Municipal Theatre?

Construction of the Ha Noi Municipal Theatre was completed in 1911. The edifice lies on irregular-shaped terrain embraced by a garden. The diagonal layout of the surrounding streets highlights the prominent position of the Municipal Theatre. Its facade is suggestive of the Opera Garnier in Paris. The balcony of the opera house is divided by Ionic and Doric columns and flanked by a pavilion on either side. 

The long, rectangular building is quite imposing and has no hint of provincialism in its architecture. Its interior is magnificent. The combination of decorative galleries and boxes suspended between solid Corinthian columns gives the impression of harmonious proportions. The auditorium may appear modest, but it can accommodate up to eight hundred people.

What are the special features of the former Residence Superieure du Tonkin?

Construction of the Residence Superieure du Tonkin at 12 Ngô Quyền Street was completed in 1918. It now serves as the Government Guest House and is used to host receptions for important visitors. The edifice forms an integral part of Ha Noi's administrative quarter yet resembles a private mansion.

The building's architecture draws on models from the period of Napoleon III (1808-1873), yet displays rich, light, almost rococo details. Each element of the facade relates to the others in perfect harmony — from the French Mansard-style roof to the interrupted cornice and the Ionic pilasters to the staircase leading to a porch topped by a unique shell-shaped roof useful for monsoon rains.

The Government Guest House is a good example of theatrical symmetry: On either side is a ramp for cars and a two-storied wing with five bays separated by balusters. The interior has an eclectic and composite character with a large reception hall branching into a row of meeting rooms on the street side. A corridor separates these rooms from the two offices located on the garden side.

How much does Ha Noi's French architecture reflect the colonists' nostalgia for their native provinces?

Walking along the streets of Ha Noi, visitors see many buildings constructed during French colonialism: A house on Hang Khay Street from 1886, another house on Cifa Nam Street from 1902, a building on Lãn Ông Street with "1926" on its facade. These houses bear witness to a historical period Vietnamese sometimes want to forget.

The area south of Hoàn Kiếm Lake retains a variety of architectural styles. In addition to the influence of the French regional style, we can see American and other European styles, including Modernism, Neo-Classicism, and a hybridisation of Western and Asian movements.

The Ha Noi Municipal Theatre

Streets in this section of the city are laid out like a chessboard. Each square of the "board" represents a parcel of land that was allotted to a French officer and his family for a private villa and surrounding gardens. Architectural style depended somewhat on the social position of the original owner, who often worked with his architect on the design. Architectural style also reflected nostalgia for France because French officials who came to far-off Viet Nam often preferred to live in houses that reminded them of their hometowns.

Reflections of regions of France are found in private and public buildings scattered around Ha Noi but are more densely concentrated in the blocks of the Western Quarter. We can trace their architectural origins to styles of Paris, Northern France, Central France and the Southern France.

Architects such as Moncet, Jacques, Lasgiquet, Leonard, and even Vietnamese architects trained by the French tended to copy Western designs to meet French tastes and those of high-society Vietnamese who had adopted a French lifestyle. These designers transplanted French vernacular architecture that had a distinct origin in a particular region or province and combined it with other regional styles. Each transplanted style was uniquely local and consistent with the climate and natural conditions of the original region.

There are fewer structures with French regional style in Ha Noi than in resort towns such as Da Lat, Sa Pa, and Bach Ma. French popular styles strongly influenced the later creative works of architects searching for suitable methods they could adapt to natural conditions in Viet Nam.

Northern France

The architecture of the Northwestern region of France features a characteristic multifaceted roof system. The roof is massive but neatly organized. Moreover, the division between the main and secondary structures is clear. The decoration, which is simple and concentrated on the corners, is less complicated than classical architecture.

The architecture of Northeast France frequently uses materials such as wood from the forests. The main roof is steep so that snow will slide off rather than collect and cause the roof to collapse. In the mountainous regions, buildings with high turrets give a magnificent panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. The form of the buildings is simple and arranged on a vertical plane. The system of doors and windows uses arches as decorative elements, and windows have a small roof to keep out the sun and rain. The architecture integrates many independent structural components with roofs of different heights on a single building. In general, architectural works of the Northern French style seem tall and grand with highly aesthetic features. Architectural techniques follow the rule of repetition and continuity throughout the vertical plane. For example, rectangular and six-sided figures are repeated from top to bottom on doors and walls and on the brackets supporting the overhanging roofs.

Starting in 1921, a high concentration of villas of the Northern French style was built along the main streets of Ba Dinh Quarter. These villas are partly hidden behind verdant gardens and beautiful trees. Many houses in that quarter retain both their vernacular style and a more palatial feel.

Central France

The architecture of Central France, including the Southwest and Southeast, has a freely-applied arrangement of decorative elements, which are not formally symmetrical. The roof slope is less steep than that required in the snowy north. The facade is composed of vertical elements. Windowpanes are divided into many sections, and there are fewer decorations on the walls. Nevertheless, the decorative details including figures on the doors and windows are delicate and exquisite, especially the windows on the second-floor balcony as well as the arches under the roof. Wooden rafters and brackets sometimes of complex and creative construction hold up the roof and overhanging eaves.

Some structures in Ha Noi still have tower-like annexes and gazeboes, an architectural style reflecting the central mountainous region of France. The narrow vertical plane with wall decorations is a distinguishing feature of buildings in Central France.

Southern France

South France borders Spain and the Mediterranean Sea. Because this region is hot and experiences little rain, house roofs are flat or have a small angle. Slate-tile roofs deflect the sun's heat. These houses have atriums and courtyards in front and use natural, unfinished materials. The arrangement of the facade is asymmetrical. A distinguishing characteristic of a southern-style house is the entranceway advancing from the plane of the building and extending forward, adding volume to the front of the building and creating elegance.

The eaves and the overall architecture exploit decorative details on the roof, the dormer windows of the second floor, and the brick pillars. These houses are generally designed with details arranged horizontally. Wide doors take up a great portion of the vertical plane, and a system of small overhanging roofs like awnings imitates classic Italian architecture. Not many buildings of the Southern French style have been built in Ha Noi; most of the few that were built have been modified to accommodate the city's harsh, humid climate. Some of those buildings combine details borrowed from the style of Central France.

During the 1940s, a wealthy Vietnamese merchant class, a new Vietnamese middle class, and a Vietnamese civil-servant class working for the French administration appeared in Ha Noi. They lived in the newly developed southern part of Ha Noi around the former city wall, an area that expanded to Thien Quang Lake. That area encompasses present-day Bui Thi Xuan, Trieu Viet Vuong, and Mai Hac De Streets. The houses of these Vietnamese were primarily small-sized villas with adjacent attached buildings.