Interactive digital media in documenting physical, functional and visual integrity within the Vientiane (Lao, PDR) old city center

Ref.: 110
Área temática: 04 Sin asignar
Fecha de recepción: 15/11/2008

AUTORES (* Autor principal)

Potkin, Alan * - Digital Conservation Facility (República Democrática Popular Lao)

EVALUACIÓN FINAL DEL COMITÉ CIENTÍFICO: Pendiente

ABSTRACT

Vientiane was razed and forcibly depopulated by the Siamese in 1827-1828, in putting down King Chao Anouvong's failed rebellion. Only Vat Sisaket --built 1815-1818 inside the royal compound, thus almost new at the time of the surrounding total devastation-- was spared for reasons still unknown, and is today the capital's sole major structure remaining in original condition. Also within that compound was the Ho Phrakeo temple, originally built in 1563 to shelter the Emerald Buddha (or Phrakeo Morakot); first destroyed by the Siamese in 1779 on seizing the statue as "palladium" of the Chakra dynasty's new capital at Krung Thep (Bangkok); thence rebuilt by Chao Anouvong (and re- dedicated in 1818); only to be destroyed yet again in 1827 --along with nearly everything else. For a half-century, the capital was uninhabited, save a few monks remaining at Sisaket, until the French re-established Vientiane as seat of their protectorate.

The old city lie between the Mekong river and the Khouvieng moat, which broadened into seasonal lakes (the largest of which was Nongchanh), its defense fortified by a 5m. masonry wall in burnt brick. After WWI, colonial urbanistes surmounted Khouvieng with an earthen mound planted as a double allée of rain trees and Honduras mahoganies, and eventually much-loved as la Promenade de dimanche. At the apogee of colonial Indochina in the early 1940s, the ruined monasteries of Vientiane had mostly been reconstructed, and the Ho Phrakeo rebuilt as an art museum.

The Khouvieng lakes at the Old City's central axis were reclaimed in the 1960s through the 1980s for the new main market, Talath Sao, mimicking classical Lao Buddhist monastic architecture --indeed, very close in design and decorative motif to the nearby Ho Phrakeo, but scaled larger.

As late as 1995, the Vientiane Old City still retained its visual integrity almost contiguously: from Talath Sao, thence extending along Khouvieng to its confluence with the Mekong, and along the Mekong waterfront both upstream and down-stream of the former royal palace grounds: dominated by the original Vat Sisaket and the twice-reconstructed Ho Phrakeo. The Mekong strand appeared just as in colonial-era postcards, and Nongchanh was pegged for conservation as a downtown nature park.

Since then, most of Khouvieng was re-sectioned, culverted, buried, and converted to a major motorway; the temple- like market halls at Talath Sao demolished and replaced with a generic shopping center + parking structure; Nongchanh mostly filled and converted to hotels, shopping, and theme parks; and the Mekong strand rendered unrecognizable by hydraulic dredging and highrises.

From 1995-2008, the Digital Conservation Facility Laos produced an extensive urbanization archive encompassing historic and new photographs and maps; paintings; immersive virtual reality panoramas, videos of land- and waterscapes, and interviews with Vientiane's inhabitants; and many of the basic planning and engineering documents rationalizing those changes. From all this, we have developed interactive publications in physical digital media (now migrating to online formats), which will be demonstrated and distributed at the Conference.

BIBLIOGRAFÍA