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M+, Hong Kong, © Vo Trong Nghia Architects
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Võ Trọng Nghĩa Architects 武重義建築事務所
Detail drawing, unit-frame (right side), Wind and Water Bar (wNw Bar) (2008), Binhduong, Vietnam 越南平陽省風與水酒吧（2008年）框架部件（右側）詳圖
2008
After studying and working in Japan for ten years, Vo Trong Nghia viewed his return to Vietnam to practice architecture as both an opportunity and a responsibility. The Wind and Water (wNw) Bar was Nghia’s first project built purely out of bamboo. He chose this material for its low cost, ecological value, and strength. It exemplifies the environmental and social agenda driving his work, which seeks to reconnect humans with nature and greenery.
The wNw Bar was built after Nghia completed the Wind and Water Cafe nearby. While both projects were developed as experiments with bamboo and meant to provide a gathering space for locals, the cafe’s structure incorporated reinforced steel, whereas the bar is made from forty-eight prefabricated main frame units of bound bamboo bent into arches, to form a dome ten metres high and fifteen metres in diameter.
The drawings show how the arches maximise bamboo’s flexibility and strength, as well as how each bamboo structural unit was constructed, with details revealing the bundling of bamboo members in comb-like joints. The design relies on low-tech joint details—ropes and hand-carved bamboo bolts—to avoid using metal parts that corrode in Vietnam’s hot and humid climate. Such knowledge of the material and its use resulted from Nghia’s previous work with bamboo as a construction material as well as the training of craftsmen with bamboo expertise, who later formed a construction company called Wind and Water House.
In Search of Southeast Asia through the M+ Collections. M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong, 22 June–30 September 2018
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