Architects and aficionados of modernist architecture may wonder why we need to define modernist architecture early in our book, Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture. We have found that there is plenty of disagreement about modernist architecture amongst architects, especially regarding the International Style. Most importantly, non-architects often do not know at all what modernist architecture is, confusing it with modern architecture or classical architecture.

Therefore our book, Southern Vietnamese Modernist Architecture, contains a chapter defining global modernist architecture. We discuss this up first in the book so that when we get to the chapter defining Vietnamese modernist architecture, the basis is set to compare them and show the differences.

Photo source: Luctor, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rietveld-Schröderhuis.jpg, public domain

Rietveld-Schröder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 1924, a villa design that would fit right into Ho Chi Minh City today.