VOICES

Featured Artist: Hoa Vu

After nearly two decades teaching in Vietnam, Grandpa shifted his sights to Taos. Not only did he take an interest in building his casita, he wanted to share the place with students from Vietnam. He sponsored a summer visit from Hoa, a young architect who had been helping with Peter’s English Language School in Ho Chi Minh City. Hoa immediately set in on designing and building the front wall to replace the fence that was just about to collapse, running along the front side of the property. As many Vietnamese are, he was incredibly resourceful with his approach to using materials on hand. The Southeast Asian aesthetic that he brought to the structure blends beautifully with the earthen forms that make up Adobe aesthetics.

During his summer in Taos, we had long conversations about the relationships between the built environment and the natural world. At the time, Vietnam was suffering from extensive mudslides in areas where urban development was replacing forests. The philosophy favored human structures over the natural world. Eventually the attitude would shift towards valuing a more balanced approach to how buildings were placed into the landscape; once it was recognized that forest plants play a role in curbing erosion and keeping the land in tact.