From Provence to Mekong Delta

The visitor centres in Can Gio, south Vietnam and Bruoux en Provence in the south of France are designed by the architectural firm DE-SO and DE-SO Asia.

Both buildings integrate into their respective landscape and climate. The Bruoux en Provence building was built in 2010 and Can Gio in 2020 – 10 years later.

Slightly elevated above natural ground level, the Can Gio pavilion reception areas benefit from the cool sea breeze – a naturally ventilated gazebo that overlooks the mangrove swamp.

Built into a hillside, the Bruoux en Provence mines visitor centre concourse benefits from thermal inertia and the freshness of the ground, burying into the earth to create a shaded “cool” space for visitors that overlooks the ocher cliffs paved square.

Each building is built from local materials – a constructive choice that favours short supply circuits of the natural materials - laterite stone in the sandy mangroves of the Saigon River, timber and concrete from a site in Provence. The Can Gio building is the grey colour of the mangrove silt, and Bruoux the orange the colour of the ocher in Provence.