Vientiane - Vang Vieng Corridor
Location: Laos
Dates: 2018–2020
Overview: A territorial development project along the Vientiane–Vang Vieng corridor.
“A reading of the corridor at the human level.”A hospitality and tourism programme built from a reading of the territory itself.
The reading began with the Lao commons, and above all with the traditional saunas in the outskirts of Vientiane. A place of gathering. Men and women separate, yet together in a moment of communion. Dark hardwood planks, the smell of fresh leaves boiling over the fire, woodsmoke, the women splashing themselves in the half-light, intense heat, peaceful calm.
On a project of this scale, my work is to act as a catalyst to bring together the right people, and let the territory speak through them.
Local farmers, listened to so we could understand how nature worked. Local builders, organising the search for recycled wooden houses in Phongsaly, dismantled and brought down from the highlands.
Local crafts and talents identified with Carol Cassidy, master weaver of Lao silk, the first American to run a workshop in Vientiane after the war; Bertrand Laville, researcher and collector of rare orchids in the remote mountains; Laurent Sévérac, distiller of local plants and essential oils.
Delivered 2020.
