Each weekend, a group of young Saigonese hits the streets to spend a day sketching the city’s heritage buildings. Yesterday, I headed along to meet the group, who are mainly working architects, at Binh Tay Market in Cholon, Saigon’s Chinatown. Dating back to the 1920s, the chaotically busy market mixes both Chinese and French colonial styles. Under the name Urban Sketchers Vietnam, the group is part of a global network of urban sketchers who connect on Facebook. Yesterday, the Saigon group was joined by visiting sketchers from Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. They’re developing a unique record of the city’s heritage - as each day, that heritage faces death by a thousand wrecking balls from heritage blind planners. While the conventional wisdom is that young Saigonese are disinterested in heritage, these young architects, as well as the young entrepreneurs turning heritage buildings into popular, cool cafes, suggest the emergence of an increasingly heritage aware young population.
Rusty Compass listings are always independent. We list the places we think are worth knowing about. Our Featured Listings allow a small selection of businesses already recommended by us, to pay a fee for a place at the top of our list. That’s it. Featured Listings have no impact on reviews, or on the curation and independence of our lists.