Inspired by Indian, Chinese and French traditions, Indochine Style takes you into the heart of this exciting and eclectic world. The book is a visual spectacle with over 250 stunning colour photographs that celebrate the best of Vietnamese and Laotian architecture, interiors and crafts. From villas to resorts, from the nostalgic to the modern, Barbara Walker, shares her insights on the intriguing and beautiful world of Indochine Style.
* This revised edition in a new size and contemporary layout features some of the most beautiful homes and commercial spaces in Indochina* The book is a visual spectacle with over 300 specially commissioned colours photographs* Comprehensive text is written in a personal and warm manner * Includes architectural drawings
"Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture" features beautiful architectural photography that illustrates the outstanding accomplishment of the people of southern Vietnam in developing a mid-century modernist architecture that is extraordinary in the world. Especially for Americans, Vietnam has been a war instead of a country. The world didn’t notice that the Vietnamese were simultaneously constructing modern apartment buildings, houses, large public buildings, and public housing as they developed a new nation. And the world didn’t anticipate that this architecture would be so overtly modernist rather than an adaption of traditional Vietnamese designs to the continuation of colonial architecture. In the mid-twentieth century, southern Vietnamese architects developed a version of modernist architecture that accommodated the tropical climate and reflected the identity of a newly-independent culture. It demonstrates the innate sense of design of Vietnamese and it represented the outlook of the people of southern Vietnam as they looked towards the future, even in the face of war. The vast quantity and quality of Vietnamese modernist buildings constructed throughout southern Vietnam made Vietnam an unrecognized center of modernism in the world. Most importantly, the southern Vietnamese as a culture embraced modernism, and it became the vernacular architecture of the culture for dwellings. This architecture features an interplay between masses and voids that provides a much more vibrant version of modernist architecture. This style fills the gaps between the functionalism of the International Style and the quest for identity and spirit that has been lacking in modernism worldwide. American architect Mel Schenck is a long-term immigrant to Vietnam and has been studying this architecture since he was surprised by the extent and quality of modernist architecture in Saigon when he first lived there in 1971/72. He and photographer Alexandre Garel accumulated a database of 400 buildings and 4,000 photographs in southern Vietnam to serve a comprehensive analysis of the history and characteristics of this distinctive architecture. Architectural historians, aficionados of modernist architecture, and anyone interested in Vietnamese culture will find that this book is a positive story about Vietnamese aspirations for independence and the value of modernist architecture in living in the world today.
With over 220 striking photographs and insightful commentary, this Vietnamese design book captures the essence of Vietnamese style and art. Vietnam has long captured the imagination of travelers, both real and armchair. It is an appealing country, filled with natural beauty, tranquil village life and fascinating cities. Vietnam also has an inimitable architectural and interior design style, the product of its rich cultural heritage and the various influences of Chinese, French and other Western colonialism. Vietnam Style is an exploration of the balancing act between traditional vernacular design and architecture and the outside influences of colonialism. The unusual and striking new design styles created by melding these elements are a true cultural kaleidoscope of Vietnam today. Chinese-style shophouses, temples with Indian influences, Thai-style palaces, French Colonial civic and domestic buildings, and the variety of tribal and native wooden houses present in Vietnam Style offer an intimate look into the vibrant, yet virtually unknown world of modern Vietnamese architecture and design.
“A timely read. . . . [Nadelson’s] reporting, all from a personal lens, is up-to-date. . . . Like chocolate chips in a cookie, the book is studded with delicious photos old and new.” —Florence Fabricant, New York Times “A wonderfully lively, knowledgeable journey through the past and present of places that help make New York City what it is, and which we must cherish and (hopefully) preserve.” —Salman Rushdie New York might have Broadway, Times Square, and the Empire State Building, but the real heart and soul of the city can be found in the iconic places that have defined cool since “cool” became a word. Places like Di Palo’s in Little Italy, where you might stop in to pick up a little cheese only to find yourself in a long conversation—part friendly chat, part profound tutorial—with fourth-generation owner Lou Di Palo, sampling cheeses all the while. Or Raoul’s in SoHo, to enjoy a classic steak-frites in the company of downtown artists, celebrities, and dyed-in-the-wool locals. Or Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem, to be in the room where some young guys named Thelonious, Dizzy, and Charlie invented bebop. Or maybe Russ & Daughters, to pick up the city’s best lox and bagels, which they’ve been selling since 1914. A lifelong New Yorker, writer Reggie Nadelson celebrates her city and all the places that make it special. Part guidebook, part cultural history, part walk down memory lane, alive with the spirit and the grit of small, often family-owned businesses that have survived the Great Depression, World War II, 9/11, and the coronavirus lockdown, Marvelous Manhattan is a seductive and timely book for anyone who lives in New York, loves the city, lived there once, or wishes they had. Because that’s the thing about Manhattan: all you need to do is walk into the right place—say, Fanelli’s on Prince Street—sit down at the bar, order a drink, open this book, and suddenly you’re a New Yorker.
Intended as a reminder of Europe for soldiers and clerks of the empire, the city of Dalat, located in the hills of Southern Vietnam, was built by the French in an alpine locale that reminded them of home. This book uncovers the strange 100-year history of a colonial city that was conceived as a center of power and has now become a kitsch tourist destination famed for its colonial villas, flower beds, pristine lakes, and pastoral landscapes. Eric T. Jennings finds that from its very beginning, Dalat embodied the paradoxes of colonialism—it was a city of leisure built on the backs of thousands of coolies, a supposed paragon of hygiene that offered only questionable protection from disease, and a new venture into ethnic relations that ultimately backfired. Jennings’ fascinating history opens a new window onto virtually all aspects of French Indochina, from architecture and urban planning to violence, labor, métissage, health and medicine, gender and ethic relations, schooling, religion, comportments, anxieties, and more.
Named A Best Book of Spring 2020 by Real Simple · Parade · PopSugar · New York Post · Entertainment Weekly · Betches · CrimeReads · BookBub "A transporting historical novel, and a smart thriller."— Washington Post "A luscious setting combined with a sinister, sizzling plot." -EW A faraway land. A family’s dynasty. A trail of secrets that could shatter their glamorous lifestyle. On a humid afternoon in 1933, American Jessie Lesage steps off a boat from Paris and onto the shores of Vietnam. Accompanying her French husband Victor, an heir to the Michelin rubber fortune, she’s certain that their new life is full of promise, for while the rest of the world is sinking into economic depression, Indochine is gold for the Michelins. Jessie knows that the vast plantations near Saigon are the key to the family’s prosperity, and though they have recently been marred in scandal, she needs them to succeed for her husband’s sake—and to ensure that the life she left behind in America stays buried in the past. Jessie dives into the glamorous colonial world, where money is king and morals are brushed aside, and meets Marcelle de Fabry, a spellbinding expat with a wealthy Indochinese lover, the silk tycoon Khoi Nguyen. Descending on Jessie’s world like a hurricane, Marcelle proves to be an exuberant guide to colonial life. But hidden beneath her vivacious exterior is a fierce desire to put the colony back in the hands of its people––starting with the Michelin plantations. It doesn’t take long for the sun-drenched days and champagne-soaked nights to catch up with Jessie. With an increasingly fractured mind, her affection for Indochine falters. And as a fiery political struggle builds around her, Jessie begins to wonder what’s real in a friendship that she suspects may be nothing but a house of cards. Motivated by love, driven by ambition, and seeking self-preservation at all costs, Jessie and Marcelle each toe the line between friend and foe, ethics and excess. Cast against the stylish backdrop of 1920s Paris and 1930s Indochine, in a time and place defined by contrasts and convictions, Karin Tanabe's A Hundred Suns is historical fiction at its lush, suspenseful best.
2011 Edition. From the Magnificent Mile to the magnificent lakefront, Chicago has it all! This pocket guidebook will walk you through the best the Windy City has to offer. Color-coded, numbered entries in the text are keyed to full-color area maps in each chapter. ''Top Picks'' direct you to not-to-be-missed attractions. Full-color spot illustrations throughout liven the text. 10 easy-to-use maps. Author Margaret Littman contributes to Moon Metro Chicago, Real City Chicago, and Chicago SHOPS.
At the intersection of literary, cultural, and postcolonial studies, this volume looks at French perceptions of 'Indochina' as they are conveyed through a variety of media including cinema, literature, art, and historical or anthropological writings. The volume is long awaited, as France's memory of 'Indochina' is understudied compared to its relationship with its former colonies in West and North Africa. The book has contemporary urgency as the makeup of France's immigrant population changes and grows to include Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotioan populations.
A “masterful . . . brilliantly constructed novel” of love and chaos in 1950s Vietnam (Zadie Smith, The Guardian). It’s 1955 and British journalist Thomas Fowler has been in Vietnam for two years covering the insurgency against French colonial rule. But it’s not just a political tangle that’s kept him tethered to the country. There’s also his lover, Phuong, a young Vietnamese woman who clings to Fowler for protection. Then comes Alden Pyle, an idealistic American working in service of the CIA. Devotedly, disastrously patriotic, he believes neither communism nor colonialism is what’s best for Southeast Asia, but rather a “Third Force”: American democracy by any means necessary. His ideas of conquest include Phuong, to whom he promises a sweet life in the states. But as Pyle’s blind moral conviction wreaks havoc upon innocent lives, it’s ultimately his romantic compulsions that will play a role in his own undoing. Although criticized upon publication as anti-American, Graham Greene’s “complex but compelling story of intrigue and counter-intrigue” would, in a few short years, prove prescient in its own condemnation of American interventionism (The New York Times).
