Located in Vietnam on a site with naturally sandy beaches and groves of green coconut forests, Thanh Long Baywalk beach square by TA Landscape Architecture integrates a vibrantly coloured public space installation with the indigenous landscape.
The beach square is formed by a column corridor integrating a dragon fruit-coloured ‘silk strip’ winding through a native coconut forest. The structural columns of the Bridge are shaped into straight coconut trees and blend with the real trees thanks to an artificial bark made of fiber concrete.
The juxtaposition of the Bridge (the Silky Strip) and the Column (the Coconut Forest) emphasizes the concept of a dragon fruit-coloured silk strip flowing in the sky and winding through the coconut canopy. The structure offers opportunities to view and feel coconut trees from above and below the canopy while also optimizing views of the bay.
The similarity of the flesh of dragon fruits, a specialty of the land, and the starry night sky above the Binh Thuan Sea inspired the landscape architects. The pink, powder-coated metal cladding panels are perforated to represent the fruit’s “seeds” during the day and the starry night when darkness comes.
The project’s ecologically-minded material solutions include precast, self-compacting concrete bricks on natural sand, applied to both the surface of the square and the roads. These pavers help to facilitate the infiltration of water back into the ground. Greenery is added by planting three layers of groundcovers-shrubs-coconut trees with sun-wind tolerant, low maintenance, indigenous species from the bay itself.
The square provides a connection between the human world and the natural world, where visitors can walk across the sand, touch green coconut leaves, capture the beauty of the picturesque bay, and take in the ‘starry sky’ of the Thanh Long Baywalk.
