Wooden wonder: Hue attracts Vietnamese and foreign tourists for its unique architecture. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Duc

THUA THIEN-HUE (VNS) — Central Viet Nam's traditional wooden architecture is unique despite its similarities with eastern systems like those found in China and Japan, a Japanese expert has said.

Dr Nakagawa Takeshi of Japan's Waseda University said while architecture in the north was strongly influenced by the East Asian system, the central region, especially Hue, struck out on its own.

This was true of both royal architecture and normal buildings.

Traditional northern architecture was developed based on the square measure system for measuring like in the Eastern system, the Hue architectural system used a triangle measure.

The declination of the roof in Hue's wooden buildings were thus different from northern ones.

Two tilt roofs attached at the top to cover a house was popular in traditional Chinese, Japanese, and northern Vietnamese houses, but in Hue two tilt roofs were covered by another roof that looked like a crab shell.

Dr Phan Thanh Hai, director of the Hue Monument Conservation Centre, said conserving the city's buildings has proved a challenging task due to their unique architecture.

Weather, wars, and time are to blame for ruining the city's wooden buildings, but the problem is that damage to any part of a building affects the whole structure, he explained.

Japan is providing assistance in conserving many of Hue's wooden buildings based on research by Japanese experts into local architecture.

The city is famous for its nha ruong, all-wooden houses with many beams and pillars. — VNS