a life in words: madame hang nga's crazy house

13th February 2012

Da Lat, Vietnam

I departed from the seaside town of Nha Trang on the 12th of February feeling a little worse for wear from the antics the previous day on board the HMS 'booze cruise'. The 6am start was followed by a hair-raising dash up the mountains of Vietnam's South Central Highlands to the hill-station of Da Lat which rests at an elevation of 1500m. The city itself has a much cooler climate due to it's altitude and was used by the French at the beginning of the 20th century as an escape from the oppressive humidity of Saigon and the architecture throughout the city indicates their former presence. Da Lat spreads across a series of pine-covered hills and the heart of the city pulsates around the central man-made Xuan Huoung lake which attracts droves of fishermen, picnic-wielding families and joggers to it's banks every day. Getting off the bus four hours later feeling very tired and a little queasy from some close shaves on those perilous mountain roads, I collapsed in the first hostel I found, emerging several hours later refreshed and ready to explore all that the city had to offer. A quiet first evening spent with some new Canadian friends in a local bar was followed by an adventurous second day in Da Lat where I went for a long walk to get acquainted with the city. A walk which as the day wore on, turned into a six hour epic amble around the Xuan Huong lake, through the busy markets of Cho Da Lat and up the hill in the southern section of town to check out Emperor Bao Dai's summer retreat and most interestingly of all Hang Nga's Crazy House. Although the temperature is cooler at night in Da Lat, the sun still beats down relentlessly during the day and so it was a sweaty walk across the city that finally led me to the infamous Crazy House or Moon Villa. Walking along the vast Tran Phu which stretches across the whole southern part of the city, I turned a corner onto Huynh Thuc Khang street and came across a very surreal sight which was unmistakably the one and only crazy house of Da Lat. A bizarre labyrinthine construction of gnarled tree trunks soared into the blue sky above and looked completely out of place with the austere colonial buildings surrounding it. The building itself is an architectural organism born from a concrete root which has 'grown' out of the porch of Nga's initial villa; a root which has subsequently bloomed into the gigantic 'forest' which exists there today. From this central building block, several tree houses have been built that are all connected by a series of narrow and precarious pathways which run along the concrete branches of these phantasmagoric constructions. Walking up to the entrance of this Vietnamese Disney Land, I was greeted by a wooden statue wearing a trade-mark conical hat - famous throughout the country - who held a sign welcoming me to the crazy house. Having paid the entrance fee I stepped through the large oak doors and entered the garden which housed a maze of trees and small wooden huts which would not have been out of place in the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. Fake tree constructions surged out of the ground and within their trunks, bird cages held Vietnamese doves which tweeted gentle melodies as an accompaniment to the 1930's French music which warbled from the speakers that hung from tree branches overhead. To the left of the entrance and set within the gnarled roots of another artificial tree, a small room contained articles and letters from around the world giving some information about the history and meaning behind this Gaudi-esque styled complex. The person in charge of this Lsd-trip of a building was Madame Hang Nga and interestingly I read that she was the daughter of President Ho Chi Minh's right hand man, Truong Chinh. From a young age she had always wanted to express her creative flair through architecture and in 1965 after studying the subject for six years in Russia, she graduated from the University of Moscow and returned to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, to work at the Architecture Design Institute; a branch of the Government's Cultural Ministry. In 1983 she moved to Da Lat and worked at the local council's Building Design Institute and in doing so moved to a city that she fell in love with. In a letter which was written by Hang Nga herself she says that, 'after designing several projects for the state, and also because of my own pleasure, the passion of architecture creation has pushed up me to begin to give expression to my own dreams'. The result of these creative expressions is the 'Crazy House' or 'Moon Villa' that exists today. The Crazy House was a project which started development in 1990 and like the gnarled trees it imitates, continues to grow and grow like a surreal organism whose only limitation is the far limits of this unique architect's mind. Her letter finishes by saying, 'Every person thirsts for Independence Liberty, I therefore give expression to such ideas.' Walking around the place felt like glancing through the looking glass and finding Alice in her wonderland as every corner revealed new hidden depths of insanity; born from creativity. I thought the place and everything it stood for was fantastic. The compound as well as being a phenomenal tourist attraction during the day also contained rooms which can be booked for night stays at $35 and each room has a different theme. Exploring the tree-houses I came across bedrooms which contained giant animals such as an Eagle who spreads it's wings the length of the room, a Bear who growled mischievously next to the door and a creepy Kangaroo whose red eyes glowed menacingly from the corner of the dark room. The strange nature of the buildings contrasts starkly with the surrounding French-colonial architecture and throughout the years has been branded by the council and locals as an eyesore which should be torn down. In her attempts to indulge her fantastical mind, Hang Nga has been seen as crazy within the community for creating an ultimate free standing fantasy world. Madame Nga has never given up on her dream though and fought for her right to express herself and finally in 2007, seventeen years after construction started, she finally received official approval from the government allowing her to continue work on a building which has become an inextricable part of her identity. These days busloads of tourists pour through the doors everyday marveling at what might possibly be the strangest building in Asia.

Welcome to the Crazy House.

It sure is.

The view of the Crazy House from the street outside.

An initial sketch drawn by Madame Nga in the design stages of The Crazy House

The main house from the drawing above, brought to life.

Gnarled concrete tree trunks have burst through the ground and support the tree houses above.

The Eagle Room where you can stay for $35. The bed is tucked into a recess in the wall which looks over the compound and the city of Da Lat.

I half expected to see the Cheshire cat smiling down at me from one of the branches.

The building is a living breathing organism which continues to grow.

The branch pathways.

Some of the pathways run across the roofs of the tree houses. This 'branch' curls over the top of the main house depicted in the sketch shown earlier on.