In countries like Vietnam and Thailand, bamboo is taking on more complex forms than ever before, playing an integral role in the future of modern sustainable architecture. One of the firms at the forefront of bamboo innovation is VTN Architects (formerly known as Vo Trong Nghia Architects), founded in 2006 with offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi and consisting of more than 60 international architects, engineers and staff.

“My village was located in the forest,” says founding partner Vo Trong Nghia. “I remember going to the forest and cutting down trees to sell timber. We destroyed that forest when I was in secondary school. By the time I was about 20 years old, the entire forest in that area was destroyed by the village. It got me thinking about how to protect timber. Other architects tend to use a lot of timber, but I try to use bamboo instead, because it’s more sustainable.”

“The hard wood, like that in our area, takes a long, long time to grow back. But with bamboo, it grows quickly, it is strong, and it’s attractive, too. Using bamboo relieves pressure on the forest. We can use this in restaurants, hotels, homes – it can be used for everything.”

Projects like the firm’s incredible Nocenco Cafe, which transformed the rooftop of a 7-story building in Vinh, epitomize the architect’s vision. An open air club and lounge completed in 2018, the structure uses bamboo like trusses in a Gothic cathedral to form a beautiful dome overhead. The space feels sheltered and protected from the hot sun, but still grants incredible views of the city.

VTN debuted ‘Bamboo Stalactite’ at this year’s Biennale di Venezia. Set along a canal in Venice, the installation is envisioned as a “free space,” shared equally by everyone and open to all for no charge. “Bamboo, with its distinctive flexibility structurally speaking, allows us to realize this project with limited resources (8 Vietnamese workers, with the support of Vietnamese and Italian architects and students to build the pavilion within 25 days.)”

“This flexibility extends beyond structures. Bamboo helps to create a space, rich in its connection with the beauty of nature, with the sun, the wind and the sea. For that reason, this bamboo space easily becomes the city’s landmark despite its small size.”

Still under construction, the firm’s ‘Ting Xi Bamboo Pavilion’ in Xiamen, China further expands upon this idea. 14 fanning bamboo columns support a slightly concave gabled roof. Dining tables are set within this cavernous space, while functions like the kitchen, restrooms, staff room and storage are housed within a triangular brick building in the back.

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Vtn Architects Gives Modern Architecture A Fresh Spin With Bamboo

Legendary Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill may be most widely known for his dystopian-looking postmodern housing estate Le Palacio d’Abraxas as well as his own reclaimed cement factory home, but his body of work is much more colorful and diverse than these examples would suggest. Celebrated for modernizing historic and regional architectural attributes in his own distinctive style, Bofill counts a number of iconic structures among his oeuvre, including the vivid La Muralla Roja (The Red Wall, 1972), a vision in pastel hues set against the Mediterranean Sea.

Bofill founded his architectural and urban design practice Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura in 1963, and nearly sixty years later, after completing over 1,000 projects in over 50 countries, he’s still working. Born and raised in Catalonia, he’s credited with helping to revive the signature craftsmanship of Catalan architecture.

A period of time spent working in North Africa in the early 1970s, where he completed such works as the Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco (above), seems to have infused Bofill’s sensibilities with a kind of color palette not often seen in Western architecture and enhanced his fondness for abstracting traditional patterns and manipulating classic forms. These elements, melded with a certain idealism and controlled theatricality, make Bofill’s work over the decades truly unmistakable.

Bofill’s planning skills are evident in such large projects as Walden 7 (1975), a terracotta-colored apartment building in the town of Sant Just Desvern near Barcelona. Even with a minuscule budget, Bofill produced a wonder of a tower full of intricate geometries. Its name is derived from the sci-fi novel ‘Walden Two’ by B.F. Skinner, referring to a utopia, and the attention to detail afforded to its every nook and cranny gives us a sense of how Bofill saw the project at the time. Walden 7 is an illustration of Bofill’s theory of “The City in Space,” a formal approach to architecture that envisions collective housing serving all the necessities of people and communities through design.

It’s monumental by nature, more than a little radical, incorporating elements of Bofill’s then-Communist politics. Looking at this building and others Bofill designed around the same time, one sees strict geometric order enforced through cubic volumes, grids, courtyards and arcades, all arranged very precisely to make maximum use of the space. This is also clear in one of his earlier works, Kafka Castle (1968), an apartment complex consisting of 90 units, restaurants, a pool, a sauna and a bar. However, a series of designs that would remain unbuilt would ultimately lead him to abandon this theory.

Where other postmodern architects of the time took a far more minimalist approach, Bofill clearly enjoyed bringing a touch of the Baroque into his projects, a tendency exemplified in Les Espaces d’Abraxas, an otherworldly housing estate in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Designed as a direct rebuttal to Le Corbusier’s utopian visions of the 1950s, which Bofill saw as lacking style, the Espaces Abraxes in Noisy-le-Grand was meant to represent an ideal city. In practice, to the residents who have lived in it over the decades, it’s said to have felt closed-off, lacking in community spirit – the opposite of what Bofill intended.

Along with similar structures built at the same time in the area, onlookers typically compare it to a prison or a fortress. Fittingly enough, it has since been used as the setting for such films as Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ and ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.’ Photographed here by Laurent Kronental as part of his series ‘Souvenir d’un Futur’ (Memory of a Future,) the Espaces Abraxas is still in use today, its residents having fought off several attempts to demolish it. Clearly, whether or not it’s your architectural cup of tea, it has significant value.

Many of the individual elements that can be identified among all of these works can be found unified in La Fabrica, Bofill’s own residence and the headquarters of his eponymous firm. Post-Modernism, Catalonian vernacular, industrial architecture, Brutalism and other styles converge in a project Bofill first began more than forty years ago, and which he says will never be officially complete.

Formerly a cement factory built in the 19th century, La Fabrica now looks like a lush reclaimed castle covered in grass and vines and packed with surrealist features, like staircases that lead nowhere. It’s a fitting home for one of the world’s greatest living architects, imbued with his spirit and his vision of what urbanism could look like.

Tadao Ando’s work consists of more than just the tangible architectural materials making up each structure, masterfully utilizing reflection, simple palettes and negative space to incorporate wind, water and light into the carefully designed compositions. The self-taught yet Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect infuses these elements – most notably in the form of reflecting pools and ponds – into almost all of his creations, yet it always seems fresh, each structure standing firm in its own identity.

Water Temple, Awaji, Japan, 1991

Serving as the residence for the oldest sect of Tantric Buddhism in Japan, the Water Temple is considered one of Tadao Ando’s most striking achievements. An oval of concrete encloses a lake of lotus flowers, which are symbols of heaven, with a set of stairs leading to its reflective surface. The journey from the gravel path outside up to this pinnacle symbolizes successive places of initiation.

The Oval at Benesse Art Museum Naoshima, Japan, 2004

Says the architect of this space serving as a museum for the town of Naoshima and his own work, “In the ANDO MUSEUM, I nestled a concrete box within the old mink house. The box has a gently curved ceiling. One of its walls aligns with the main axis of the house and is tilted towards the ridge-beam to generate a feeling of openness that extends dynamically into the space above. Sunlight descends down through the deep space from a skylight opening at the top of the wooden roof. My aim was to create a space that conjures a rich sense of depth despite its small size, where oppositional elements such as the past and present, wood and concrete, and light and shadow clash intensely as they are superimposed against each other.”

Casa Monterrey, Mexico, 2011

Nestled into a hillside in Mexico, Casa Monterrey’s defining feature is the swimming pool that cantilevers out over the slope, punctuated with concrete walls that strategically frame views of the rocky Cumbres de Monterrey National Park. Designed to accommodate a family, the three-story house is built around a double-height library. A rooftop terrace provides gorgeous views of the landscape as well as that pool, which seems to extend the sky right into the yard.

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, 2002

One of Ando’s most iconic structures, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth incorporates Y-shaped concrete supports that are doubled by the 1.5-acre reflecting pool that comes right up to the building’s exterior walls. Five flat-roofed pavilions seem to rise up out of the water, constructed in a limited palette of simple materials that make the landscape and the art inside the main focus but still come together into an elegant whole. “By using glass as a wall, physically there is a barrier, protection from the outside, but visually there is no boundary between outside and inside,” says Ando. “There is also the light that comes off the water through the glass that indicates a lack of boundary an can make its presence felt on the wall.”

Church on the Water, Hokkaido, 1988

This classic Tadao Ando work faces seated congregants inside a minimalist church building so they’re gazing out at a cross in the middle of a pond. The church consists of two overlapping cubes, a steel-and-glass entrance structure and the main volume serving as the chapel. The glass wall overlooking the pond can be opened or closed depending on the weather. Unsurprisingly, Church on the Water is one of Japan’s most popular wedding destinations.

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Reflecting On A Master Architect 10 Water Centric Works By Tadao Ando

The world lost a star architect this week, trailblazing Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid, who was the first woman to receive the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Gold Medal. Her striking modern structures are experimental, visionary and bold, never afraid to make a strong statement. These are not buildings designed to blend into their environments, but rather sculptural focal points, every one of them a landmark in its respective city. Attempting to narrow down her best works is as futile as it is subjective, but here are five that stand out as prime examples of her distinctive style.

Glasgow Riverside Museum of Transport

The spiky, jagged front facade of this museum flows into ribbons of reflective zinc, symbolizing the landscape of its setting as the junction of the rivers Clyde and Kelvin. Designed like a linear tunnel bent to one side, its roof mimicking waves in the water, with a column-free, open center for hosting exhibits. Said Hadid of the project, “Through architecture, we can investigate future possibilities yet also explore the cultural foundations that have defined the city. The Riverside Museum is a fantastic and truly unique project where the exhibits and building come together at this prominent and historic location on the Clyde to enthuse and inspire all visitors.”

Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku

The organic form of this cultural center in Azerbaijan gives it the look of a gigantic sea shell nestled among rectilinear Soviet architecture, establishing fluid connections between itself and the surrounding plaza. It’s all vaulted curves and sinuous lines extending over the roof and back to the ground again. Said Hadid, “Elaborate formations such as undulations, bifurcations, folds, and inflection modify this plaza surface into an architectural landscape that performs a multitude of functions: welcoming, embracing, and directing visitors through different levels of the interior. With this gesture, the building blurs the conventional differentiation between architectural object and urban landscape, building envelope and urban plaza, figure and ground, interior and exterior.”

Messner Mountain Museum, Corones

Poking out of a peak within the Italian Alps, the Messner Mountain Museum Corones almost seems to have unearthed itself from the depths of Mount Kronplatz to look out onto South Tyrol. In fact, the overlook visible from outside is only the tip of a structure enabling visitors to explore the mountain’s caverns and grottos. Views from the shard-like lookouts are directed to specific peaks, and the pale exterior panels are informed by the tones of the adjacent limestone.

London Aquatics Center

The undulating swimming venue for the 2012 Olympics in London is inspired by “the fluid geometries of water in motion,” nearly every line within the interior taking its shape from waves. As dynamic and beautiful as it truly is, the design reflects a certain deliberate restraint on Hadid’s part. In contrast to the visually dazzling spaces she’s known for, this interior takes care not to outshine its intended purpose, keeping focus on the pool and its inhabitants. As seen in the aerial photography, controversial ‘wings’ were added to Hadid’s design to accommodate extra seating during the Games, but have since been removed to honor the integrity of her original vision.

MAXXI Museum, Rome

Often referred to as Hadid’s most iconic project, the MAXXI Museum of the Arts of the XXI Century in Rome complements the city’s antiquities while also bringing in a much-needed freshness and fluidity. An historic city full of ruins, without a lot of notable modern architecture, can start to feel static. Hadid injects a sense of vitality without dwarfing the centuries-old architecture in its immediate vicinity. Said Hadid, “Here we are weaving a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces. It’s an intriguing mixture of permanent, temporary and commercial galleries, irrigating large urban field with linear display surfaces. It could be a library; there are so many buildings that are not standing next to, but are intertwined and superimposed over one another. This means that, through the organizational diagram, you could weave other programs into the whole idea of gallery spaces. You can make connections between architecture and art – the bridges can connect them and make them into one exhibition.”

Even the world’s most famous architects, from Zaha Hadid to Frank Gehry, get rejected sometimes. When Norman Foster’s visionary proposal for a new London airport built right in the middle of the Thames estuary was rejected, the architect retorted that the decision lacked “courage,” and that does often seem to be the case, with cities balking at overly ambitious and futuristic designs. But sometimes, it just comes down to money – or the architect’s ego.

Floating London Airport by Norman Foster

Land-poor London needs a new solution for an airport that can grow along with the city in the decades to come, but adding new runways would just be a short-term fix. Architect Norman Foster’s solution is to build a four-runway airport on the Isle of Grain in the Thames estuary, linking to existing and new high speed train networks. The proposal would use land that’s not currently suited for anything else, and would also make it easy to transport good directly to Britain’s other container ports. But the proposal isn’t among the three that London city officials are moving forward with, leading Foster to comment that the decision is “sadly predictable.”

Eisenhower Memorial by Frank Gehry

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Frank Gehry’s design for the Eisenhower Memorial was deemed a bit too flashy by the former president’s family, leading to a series of re-designs before the architect’s proposal was finally scrapped. The Eisenhower family wanted a memorial that was “simple, sustainable, and affordable,” and while Gehry’s design seems uncharacteristically sedate compared to his usual work, it still included elements that the family and committee found to not be in keeping with Dwight Eisenhower’s humble character. Congressional budget cuts ultimately slashed the funds available to the project, and now it’s unlikely to break ground.

Kimball Art Center Extension by Bjarke Ingels

BIG is an appropriate acronym for the Bjarke Ingels Group, as the firm typically designs innovative, futuristic architectural solutions that are sometimes so far outside the box as to be a bit mind-boggling. Often described as a ‘wonder kid,’ young architect Bjarke Ingels seems to think on a large scale, dreaming up mountain-shaped residences with walkable green roofs and other unexpected designs. In the case of the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah, one design after another has been rejected. The first, a twisting timber structure, got the axe for being out of character with the historic setting. The second, a large concrete volume that proved more popular with locals, was thrown out for failing to meet strict Old Town planning guidelines in the former mining town.

Neues Stadt-Casino by Zaha Hadid

Even Zaha Hadid, among the most celebrated of contemporary architects, has designs rejected every now and then. Hadid’s proposed design for the Neues Stadt-Casino for Basel, Switzerland won a competition four years ago, but Swiss tradition allows the public to have the final say on projects of this size that make use of public money. 62.5% of voters rejected the proposal, leading it to be scrapped.

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Rejected Starchitects 8 Controversial Building Concepts