HCMC – Exhibition “In Situ” by Hoanh Tran and Archie Pizzini

Opening: Fri 10 Apr 2015, 6 – 8 pm
Exhibition: 10 Apr – 02 May 2015, 10 am – 7 pm
Galerie Quynh

From the organizer:

In Situ – an ambitious exhibition by Ho Chi Minh City-based architectural duo Hoanh Tran and Archie Pizzini of HTA + pizzini. The show will feature photo and text-based work along with installations that not only highlight the concepts driving their architectural practice but also reveal the pair’s own creative responses to the city they inhabit.

Observing the shifts in Vietnam’s social and cultural fabric alongside the rapid physical growth of its urban centers like Ho Chi Minh City, Tran and Pizzini regard the city as a transient organism – one that is impermanent, sensitive to the flux of Vietnam’s economic growth. Some architects will demolish existing sites to create something completely new to signify a modern city; others on the extreme pole will attempt to preserve the history of the site, eschewing any plans to modify the site and wishing to restore the building to its former glory. Tran and Pizzini deliberately tread a middle, more sustainable ground where they choose to build upon the rich layers of the history of a specific site. Tran states, “A city is enriched by accumulations over generations… Accumulation incorporates destruction, but keeps enough fabric to retain cultural identity, while obliteration erases everything, including the cultural fabric.”

Appropriately, Tran and Pizzini are presenting their work in the very gallery space they designed in 2013. Over a century old, the building’s rich social and historical layering provided the conceptual framework for the architects to design with accumulation and transience in mind. Pizzini reflects, “Can [the word] historic refer to a structure that embodies the events that have passed through it by showing the marks and residue of different circumstances, impulses and ventures? What type of building, the pristinely preserved, or the densely accreted, is most deeply infused with history?” ‘In Situ’ is a poignant and poetic testament to the architects’ ethical position favoring sustainability and resilience.