<< Previous Next >>

Dalat Crazy House


Dalat Crazy House
Photo Information
Copyright: Chris Jules (chrisJ) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3713 W: 216 N: 3721] (28231)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 1999-01
Categories: Artwork
Camera: Minolta XG-1, Minolta 28mm f2.8, Fuji 100
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2006-03-13 8:05
Viewed: 925
Points: 38
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
"Dalat contains a weird architectural contraption - a jumble containing some Gaudi, a dose of America's Bruce Goff, Disney, some Steiner and a liberal layering of hippy madness. It's the Crazy House, by architect Hang Nga.

Hang Viet Nga is the architect's full name and she has created a monument to her architectural philosophy of dreams, fantasy, folklore and free-form. Crazy House is also her home, still under construction and due to be finished in seven years.

The building is a swirl of ferro concrete (also used to make boats and swimming pools), shaped like a huge tree with tunnels travelling through the trunks. Inside those trunks are rooms - small suites like a hotel (they can be booked) - and each one different, designed on a theme for an animal, plant or insect.

Crazy House rises about five storeys above its suburban neighbours, rattling and squirming its entrails and bones into the skyline, great sweeps of black and yellow concrete, bizarrely shaped glass openings, beautifully peach-coloured walkways that are a cross between a tunnel and cave, and sculptured rooftops that appear menacing.

It is difficult to distinguish between the architect's work and that of nature, and I am sure that is Hang Nga's intention. Interiors are startling, eccentric and original. Low furniture, much of it built-in, is sculptured to the curving walls; timber-like mallee root is cut from trees and polished without further treatment, so an organic, non-industrial ethic is at work.

The piece de resistance is a centrally carved animal statue in each room, denoting that room's theme. So you can choose to sleep with an ant or a kangaroo!

Doors are shaped to suit the wall openings, and they often turn out like a Steiner door, with the weight of the panel synchronised with the shape of a body, just as light fittings and curtain tracks take their position in the twisting spaces as if they grew there.

This may be a Vietnamese adaptation of animism, but I suspect it is a delightfully personal attitude held by this quirky architect, who is, by the way, available at the Crazy House ticket office or nearby design studio most days.

Hang Nga is the one with deep mascara, a floppy hat and trailing around her opus wearing long, colourful gowns - not the traditional Vietnamese au dais, more 1960s hippy style.

Just how Hang Nga manages to create her monument is itself a story of mythical scale. Generally, the people's committee in each town and region of Vietnam deals its powers of approval slowly and conservatively, which means not much that is odd gets through the system. Weird decisions can be had, oddities do occur, but what assists Hang Nga's case most is that her father, Truong Chinh, was president of Vietnam after Ho Chi Minh."

Source 'The Age'.

This is a link to The Age
berek, AnneFrance, joebatista, zunnun, nova, sufi, mightyweed, cstathoulis, pozaru, TheMystic, touristdidi, Werewolf has marked this note useful
Only registered TrekLens members may rate photo notes.
Add Critique [Critiquing Guidelines] 
Only registered TrekLens members may write critiques.
Discussions
None
You must be logged in to start a discussion.

Critiques [Translate]

from the thumbail, I tough of Gaudi... but not : )
Great colors... as usual... : )

  • Great 
  • ciore Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 823 W: 2 N: 100] (2242)
  • [2006-03-13 8:24]

Grest,Chris!
Thanks for this info and image!
Viktorija

  • Great 
  • pozaru Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3300 W: 678 N: 2088] (16695)
  • [2006-03-13 8:25]

Crazy indeed, Chris !
Like the POV and the leaves in the upleft corner giving the dimension.


tfs,
v

Hi Chris,

Very interesting and unusual!!
I like it. It has colour, light, life!
Very well done!!

Constantinos

What a great creation! thank you for giving us the opportunity to see it and fantastic description.

  • Great 
  • sufi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 736 W: 7 N: 104] (1326)
  • [2006-03-13 9:29]

Hello Chris;
Oh my god!.. It's realy crazy...
It's a very ingenios composition and great shot...
TFS..
Salim.

wow what a marvellous place i'd love to see and and book it!
very graphical composition nice colors and detail, like a painting, the tree (?) my only doubt
very good
emanuela

  • Great 
  • nova Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2819 W: 267 N: 842] (8311)
  • [2006-03-13 19:45]

What an interesting subject,Chris! You made me discover a very special artist,Hang Nga,and I would like to see more of her work...I love those extravagant artists such as Gaudi,Hundertwasser,Dali,and now Nga! Great documentary picture! Tfs! Michel

  • Great 
  • linus Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1360 W: 10 N: 687] (9674)
  • [2006-03-13 20:23]

Very interesting and totally uncharacteristic of SE Asia. Great picture, really shows the uniqueness of the place.

very unsual shot - great colors.
tfs

Very interesting shot Chris
I love what it does to the mind; I don't know where it begins or ends.
I love it ;)
Great as usual
Thanks for sharing it

Hello Chris, I love it, is is very special and very interesting subject.

Well captured and composed with nice patterns by the girafs :)

Cheers, Yan

well, crazy, strange, but very well shooted! the colours are really super

  • Great 
  • SkyF Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1666 W: 136 N: 1263] (6138)
  • [2006-03-14 13:04]

Hi Chris,
this is like a puzzle, to find the different animals that one recognizes. You chose a very nice perspective, it ads to the confusion and adds a nice height. Great colors and good sharpness.
TFS...Sky

  • Great 
  • berek Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Workshop Editor/Silver Note Writer [C: 730 W: 61 N: 33] (229)
  • [2006-03-16 8:45]

Hi Chris,
I look this picture very carefully and then I solve the problem. very good working and colours management .tfs
B.Erek
Meaning: 9 ; Framing:10 ;Idea :10

Creative funny and colourfull ..
Very nice Chris! TFS
John T

Surreal, in the fullest sense of the word! Great story to go with this - a true eccentric!
Cheers
Otto

I have been there. She had an unpleasant reputation, was considered not a nice person. When I saw the place, she was no where to be found. It is extremally interesting!!!!

I agree it's a very weird concept but i like it! That's surreal for sure! You have a good angle and i'm sure there was many other kind!

Calibration Check
















0123456789ABCDEF