Huen Lao: Laung Prabang Traditional House in Lao

Luang Prabang in Lao is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Conservation zone. It is becoming popular among tourists from around the world to visit the city as a spot of tourist attraction. What Unesco conserves in this town? It's traditional houses, called Heun Lao. The word, Heun means house in the local language. Traditional houses in the city have been changed and adapted by many local and foreign investors without understanding the identity of the local tradition and culture. The renovation of many houses has been done by using the western logics. As a result, altered traditional houses have got new modern forms which have never existed in the past.

The study of Saisumpun, a lecturer of Lao National University suggests the wisdom of the locals on the extension of the Luang Prabang's Traditonal houses. In the west, social hirarchy is less evident in the modern livings. On the contrary, Heun Lao has spatial hierarchy, e.g. space of male is placed at the front of the house and space of female is placed at the rear of the house. Parents and elders are considered as higher status than their children. This traditional house has been thought about the family extension. If a family is getting bigger, the house can be extended and still keeping the identity of traditional livings. The unique space of the Lao house is called 'Kwuaan'. Kwuaan is a open, multi-purpose space, a centre for social and religious activities. There are two entrances for this space, one for entrance and another for spirit. To design or redesign space in the house, its traditional purpose and the concept of spatial hierarchy should be kept in order to conserve not only the architectural building but also the locals' living tradition and culture.

This poses a serious notion on globalisation. Perhaps, the concept of 'glocalisation' becomes more relevant when thinking about design and how to manage it.

Colourful ocean strategies to AEC

AEC stands for ASEAN economics cooperation. AEC will be officially launched in 2015. Its estimated market size is 570 millions. AEC is a cooperation zone fo the free zone for trade, culture, society and knowledge. This will enhance more opportunities for free flow of resources in the ASEAN. The seminar, colourful ocean strategies to AEC for SMEs was hosted by TASME. Four ocean strategies have been the subjects of discussions: red ocean, blue ocean, green ocean and white ocean. As red and blue oceans, Chan Kim and Renee Maubourge have introduced on their book. To recap, companies need to search for untapped market and identify 'value innovation' opportunities. The value innovation is the balance between cost value and innovation. The term 'ocean' is used to suggested way of running business. Arguably, businesses have to implement colourful strategy when they are running business. Red ocean strategy is focused on cost reduction or differentiation. Blue ocean strategy creates new alternatives. Green ocean is dealing with ecology and self sufficiency. Finally, White ocean strategy is focusing on social responsibility and ethics. These colourful ocean strategies inevitably become a bottom line of AEC business. It is estimated that when the ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6 are successfully unioned. ASIA will become a new world power with the total size around 3 billion population. It is very difficult to imagine how ASIA will look like!