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Vietnam: Street Life Kaleidoscope

Exploring Vietnam’s modernist architecture and colorful streets.

It’s no wonder I fell in love with Vietnam. The South of the country is a mecca for modernist architecture.
Southern cities are a fascinating aesthetic mess: oversized commercial signs compete with modernist geometry and socialist-style public buildings. Unexpected color combinations create their own visual logic at every street corner. What some dismiss as kitsch, I see as the authentic character of contemporary Vietnam—an over-the-top, optimistic embrace of capitalistic modernity despite a communist ideology.

This portfolio primarily showcases the Mekong Delta, with additional glimpses of Hoi An and Hue (Central Vietnam), as well as Hanoi, Moc Chau, and Bac Ha (Northern Vietnam).

Written and photographed by Alexandra van der Essen

South Vietnam

A Vietnamese jewelry store in Cần Thơ with oversized, bold, and ostentatious commercial signage, reflecting the city's eclectic urban aesthetic
A Vietnamese woman wearing a traditional conical hat walks past a modernist building in Cần Thơ, illustrating the fusion of traditional daily life and contemporary architecture.
A Vietnamese pedestrian in a conical hat walks past a modernist building in Ho Chi Minh City, showcasing the contrast between daily life and mid-century modern architecture.
A street in Cần Thơ, Vietnam, lined with medical clinics and businesses, where a motorbike rider passes by colorful, overlapping signage.
A blue modernist market building in Vietnam (Vinh Long) with an open-air market below, electrical wires crisscrossing, and people shopping for goods
A Vietnamese medical service center in Can Tho with a white geometric modernist facade, reflecting the socialist-era urban design of public buildings
A busy street in Vietnam where motorbikes wait at a traffic light in front of a concrete modernist Christian church with a blue and white exterior
A pastel blue hotel in Can Tho, Vietnam with arched windows and red lanterns, as a woman in a denim jacket rides her scooter past fruit vendors
The Modernist Culture and Sports Center of Vĩnh Long, Vietnam, showcasing striking geometric modernist architecture, national banners, and a cyclist passing by
A towering Vietnamese church steeple with an avant-garde modernist design, featuring crosses, geometric elements, and a cloudy sky
A pale green mid-century modern school building in Vietnam with curved concrete features, while a motorbike rider in a conical hat drives by
A bustling market street in Vietnam where a woman in a traditional conical hat pushes a cart loaded with colorful textiles past an ornate concrete mosque entrance
A concrete towering lotus-shaped Brutalist monument in Ho Chi Minh Vietnam, with a reflective pond and a woman in a flowing white dress standing on a curved bridge
A Vietnamese mosque glowing with green neon lights at night in Chau Doc, as a motorbike rider passes through the grand arched entrance.
A peaceful urban park in Ho Chi Minh Vietnam featuring modernist pedestrian bridges over a pond, with a woman in a traditional outfit posing
A weathered mid-century modern theater in Vietnam (Ben Tre) with a Brutalist-style concrete facade, as a woman and child ride past on a motorbike
A woman wearing a conical hat shops for groceries in Ho Chi Minh City, standing in front of a striking modernist building with geometric balconies and urban textures.
he grand entrance gate of Tổ Đình Giác Lâm, one of Ho Chi Minh City's oldest temples, featuring intricate orange and gold detailing with a Vietnamese flag flying above.
A man rides a motorbike past a highly decorated modernist-style building in Cần Thơ, showcasing a fusion of traditional and contemporary Vietnamese architectural influences.

Central Vietnam

Vietnamese woman in a conical hat sells fresh flowers and produce at a lively local market in Hoi An, surrounded by colorful baskets of fruits and vegetables.
A Vietnamese woman in a conical hat walks down a narrow street in Hoi An, carrying groceries past historic yellow buildings with wooden shutters.
A woman in a traditional white áo dài walks across a wooden bridge leading to the Thien Mu Pagoda, a historic Buddhist temple in Hue, surrounded by lush greenery and a tranquil pond.

North Vietnam

A bustling Vietnamese street food alley in Hanoi with people dining on traditional dishes, as a woman sits at a food stall surrounded by signs
A vendor at a Vietnamese dessert stall in Hanoi, displaying a variety of colorful sweet soups (chè) in a glass case, while customers sit nearby
A Vietnamese fabric market in Hanoi with a woman reading amid stacks of colorful textiles, where vendors sell cloth in shades of red, blue, and yellow.
A lush green tea plantation in Moc Chau Northern Vietnam, with curved rows of tea bushes and children walking through the rolling landscape
Two Vietnamese women in traditional embroidered clothing stand among large buffalo in a rural market in Bac Ha, surrounded by tall green corn stalks

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