Indigenous Interiors as Narrative Spaces: Heritage Interiors as Storytellers of Memory in Ancient Houses in Hoi An, Vietnam
Nguyen Thi Bich Van
Abstract
Indigenous interiors are not only historical artefacts; they are lived environments in which personal, familial, and collective memories are produced, embodied, and transmitted through materials, objects, rituals, light, sound, smell, and spatial practices. This paper examines the interiors of ancient houses in Hoi An, Vietnam, and asks how vernacular domestic spaces operate as a narrative medium of memory and cultural identity. A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted in three heritage houses representing different conditions of contemporary use: continued residence, adaptive museum use, and a hybrid residence-tourism condition. Fieldwork undertaken between March and August 2024 combined measured and photographic documentation, phenomenological observations at different times of day, and eighteen semi-structured interviews with homeowners, multi-generational residents, and local heritage-related participants. Data were thematically analysed through four interrelated dimensions: material memory, sensory-emotional memory, cultural-ritual memory, and urban-community memory. The findings show that worn timber surfaces, ancestral altars, heirloom objects, courtyard daylight, familiar sounds and smells, and recurring domestic rituals function as mnemonic devices that connect everyday life with family histories and the wider history of Hoi An. The paper proposes the concept of the “interior memoryscape” to describe this layered relationship between material fabric, embodied experiences, ritual practices, and community meanings. It argues that conservation of ancient houses of Hoi An should therefore extend beyond physical fabric to protect the sensory, ritual, and lived conditions through which heritage interiors continue to tell stories.
Keywords:
Heritage interiors, ancient house, Hoi An ancient town, place-memory, socio-cultural process, phenomenological observation, memorialization, Indigenous Interiors.