I have been racking my brain, trying to work out what it is within this city that I respond to so strongly. I think I am going to create some new categories to help me:
- residential,
- colour,
- architecture (or something) and
- decoration.
We all argue about quaint or quirky villages, and we’d probably both agree that Hanoi has this appeal – I mean, just look at it.
But what is it exactly? We want to replicate, and not waste time with junky buildings, so what is it about these that is so fantastic?
I have already created a skinny column, so you can check that out.
I just want to post these, and I’m sure I’ll work out what the magic charm is soon.
In the meantime, I distill it to this:
- Colour – and the right colours. Unfortunately, beautiful patina requires an age to appear (or does it?)
- Shape/Form/Decoration/Texture: Buildings have hundreds of shapes. For some reason, some cities shows off thousand of edges and walls and window sills and forms. We all know a huge clunky building has one massive wall and a little bit more.
I guess I am appreciating ‘detail’ but I want to find out the detail of the detail.