HÀ NỘI — Two Vietnamese projects have won International Architecture Awards (IAA) in the green design category.

The winners are Vietnamese collective H&P Architects’ Cheering Forestaurant (forest and restaurant) in Hà Nội, and the toigetation (toilet and vegetation) project in the northern Cao Bằng Province.

Jointly organised every year by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Metropolitan Arts Press, Ltd., the awards are dedicated to the recognition of excellence in architecture and urbanism from a global point of view.

H&P Architects’ projects were among more than 100 winning entries selected from thousands of renowned architectural companies’ entries from 40 countries.

The models of the award-winning projects are being exhibited in Chicago, before the award presentation and exhibition in Istanbul, Turkey, in September.

Before IAA 2016, both Vietnamese projects had won the “architecture Oscar” A+ award and Green Good Design award in America in May and June, respectively.

Blends in: Containing a toilet and a washing area, Cao Bằng Province’s toigetation was built as a toilet facility combined with a branching bamboo structure covered in vegetation, helping it to merge with its forest surroundings. Together with Cheering restaurant, the project was awarded International Architecture prizes. — Photo adsttc.com

Located at the centre of Hà Nội, Cheering Forestaurant is the renovation of a long-closed project, with the original steel frame structure and reusable cover materials such as glass, steel, bar steel and sheet-metal roof being retained.

The life on sidewalks, where many daily activities of Hà Nội people, especially the cooking of food, happen from morning to night, inspired the designers to create a space that recalls ancient trees, a familiar image in the streets of this 1000-year-old city.

The restaurant creates special experiences for customers and brings them closer to nature by creating a space that contains the essence of Hà Nội street food culture. It is a solution to the dialogue between contemporary architecture and a context full of historical and cultural values, while still helping to reshape the urban and architectural landscape of central Hà Nội.

Containing a toilet and a washing area, Cao Bằng Province’s toigetation was developed for a school in Sơn Lập Commune, where a majority of the inhabitants live in poverty and the standards of sanitation are very low.

The project was built as a toilet facility combined with a branching bamboo structure covered in vegetation, helping it to merge with its forest surroundings. — VNS