Effect of Hue Citadel on the Layout of Traditional Garden Houses Located in Its Area, Vietnam

Abstract

In Hue, the city located in the middle region of Vietnam, the Citadel is known as the place of the last Dynasty in the history of Vietnam, Nguyen (1802-1945). Whereas Nguyen Kings lived in the Purple Forbidden City (the third wall of the Citadel), other members of royal families and high-ranking mandarins lived in Hue Traditional Garden Houses (HTGHs) constructed around and in the Citadel area. This paper is a part of the research that focuses on an approach for sustainable live conservation and application of HTGHs into contemporary use. In this paper, the study aims to consider effects of the Citadel on the layout and arrangement of HTGHs located in its' area by studying alteration in layout elements of those house. Based on field surveys of 91 HTGHs in the Citadel area, it is found that although those houses are altered into various configurations under the impacts of urbanization and modernization, several important traditional elements in layout such as Binh Phong (masonry screen), Be Can (basin), and facing orientation have been maintained, and their layouts reflect a miniature image of Hue Citadel, i.e., there is an integral relationship between the Citadel and HTGHs located in it. This relationship plays an important role for expressing one of unique characteristics of Hue cultural asset, which is unavailable in other regions of Vietnam.