Reflecting Indigenous is an artwork set up as a landmark to identify the urban identity of the Central Highlands region of Vietnam. Here Elephant is the king of the mountains and forests, symbolizing the power and love of nature. A couple of elephants is a symbol of cyclic proliferation, closely associated with locality, honoring sustainable development, in harmony with nature.
Through the interpretation of the Cartesian shaping structure, integrating two directions with different materials: one is a reflective material to honor the surrounding nature, the other is a Corten style steel material with basalt red color symbolizing ground scape character which is indigenous to the place. Elephants Couple, when looking at this angle, are firmly attached to the ground, from another angle, they blend into the sky. Nature and people live together in harmony in the message of the Reflecting Indigenous.
Project location
As an urban gateway, the intersection point of two major roads of Buon Me Thuot City, the architect conceived the idea of two elephants parading parallel to two roadways and coupling at the tipping point, in the center plaza of the new residential development. The symbolic Elephant Couple at the northern gateway of Buon Me Thuot City represent a contemporary architectural thinking, bold, indigenous, and nature-oriented design
Design Concept
• Designers select and reproduce familiar images of Vietnam's highlands landscape, such as the luxuriant foliage of the forest, the ferocity of the water boiling under the majestic waterfalls, the immense red basalt and above all, the emotional lifestyle of the mountain elephants - the mascots of the sacred mountains.
• Marking the landscape with a sculpture of a male and a female elephant leaning against each other. The male strongly reaches up his trunk, while the female curls hers down to hold the earth symbol. The overall sculpture block is 21m long, 18m wide and 18m high.
• Creating a 3D volume from a 2D planar system, in two perpendicular directions, the architect wanted to create a strange feeling and new perspectives for this familiar mascot image. The core of sculpting method is on the square grid system, which is consistent from the overall landscape to the finishing details. The structural system accurately reflects the architectural form.
Design Development
• The structural system uses thick steel plates in the form of slices, intersecting in two directions. The vertical surface is finished with earthen orange paint (Corten style) - a metaphor for the red earth color of basalt soil of Buon Me. The horizontal finish is scratched stainless steel, creating reflections that blend the Elephants into the clouds and the landscape.
• With the intersecting structure and the combination of two different materials, the architects present a sculptural feature which inherited the identity of the land and having the interactivity and integration with the surrounding landscape (weather, viewing angle and viewer movement) - a reflection of the indigenous.
• The surrounding landscape uses waterfalls, paving with pixels of rock, and strips of shrubs to represent the flow of two waterfalls Dray Nur and Dray Sap which are parallel to the elephants, converging at the urban gateway.