HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội architecture past and present is reflected through sketches and mixed media artworks displayed at an exhibition in the city.

Titled Hà Nội Architects with Hà Nội, the exhibition displayed various artworks created by architects such as Đinh Hải, Trần Hoàng Hải and Phạm Anh Quân, and their projects to improve living space in the capital city.  

They aim to preserve memories of the past at a time when Hà Nội is changing day by day because of urbanisation, gradually losing its long-treasured charms. The sketches preserve the city’s heritage and help people who live here gain a deeper understanding of it.

The exhibition also showcased mixed media artworks created by 40-year-old artist Nguyễn Thế Sơn.

Times are changing: Visitors contemplate artworks by Nguyễn Thế Sơn, illustrating the rapid change in the city. — Photo courtesy of the Hà Nội Architects Association

Sơn’s reliefs depicts the prototypes of several typical apartment buildings called “nhà tập thể” in Hà Nội, which have housed thousands of people including Kim Liên, Thanh Nhàn, Thái Hà, Giảng Võ and Nguyên Hồng.

His art is unique. To make his works lively, Sơn took pictures then created 3D reliefs with printed pictures that were pasted onto a solid backing.

The public can also see photographs of these apartment buildings with the “tiger cages” that residents build to extend their living spaces.

He also displayed artworks reflecting houses facing the street. Visitors can understand the rapid change in which residents have taken to erecting huge billboards that cover their entire house fronts and compete for the viewer’s attention with their bright colours.

“Instead of windows and balconies which facilitate the communication between neighbours, tall billboards seal the houses off, both towards the street, the outside, as well as the inside,” said the artist. “What remains is a lightless living space behind the façade, losing value, as well as a city with a changed face.”

The exhibition will run until February 15 at the AgoHub, an information centre for creative communities, 12 Hoà Mã Street, Hà Nội.

Real life: Phùng Hưng Street, a sketch by Phạm Thanh Sơn.

The Hà Nội Architects Association hosted the event with the aim of encouraging architects and other people to join hands to improve and renovate the living space in the city, according to architect Trần Huy Ánh, a member of the organising board.

An exhibition of projects to renovate Phùng Hưng Street will be organised on February 2 at the area of murals on vaults of Phùng Hưng Street. The railway viaduct spans on the street have been turned into canvas for an art project by Hoàn Kiếm District People’s Committee, UN-Habitat and the Korea Foundation.

The project is part of the programme to introduce art into urban areas, started in August of last year.

Significant public art projects in Hà Nội will be honoured during a ceremony held on February 3 at the Hà Nội Urban Planning Institute, Cầu Giấy District.  — VNS