2 Vietnamese Designs Take Home Top Awards at International Architecture Festival

A21 Studio’s “The Chapel” and Vo Trong Nghia Architect’s “House For Trees” both took home top awards at last week’s World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Singapore.

In addition to winning Building of the Year, “The Chapel” also won in three other categories - Small Project of the Year, Landscape of the Year and Future Project of the Year awards.

The community building was "designed as a venue for everyone, especially youths, to conduct meetings, exhibitions, wedding ceremonies and parties, and other recreational activities."

Nghia’s “House For Trees,” came out on top in the House category. The project also won first prize at June’s British Architectural Review Magazine’s AR House Awards.

Designed by Masaaki Iwamoto and Kosuke Nishijima, the house features 5 concrete blocks distinguished by trees on their rooftops and is the first in Vietnam to mix concrete and bamboo in its construction.

Both structures fit neatly into the main theme of this year’s Festival, “Architects and the City” which focused on, “the contributions architects can make to cities and how they affect – and are affected by – politics, infrastructure, planning communities and technology.”

The WAF attracted 200 projects from 50 countries and top firms including Zaha Haid Architects, OMA, Foster + Partners, BIG, Woods Bagot, KPF and Farrells.

The future looks bright for architecture in Vietnam.