HÀ NỘI — VTN Architects run by one of Việt Nam’s leading designers Võ Trọng Nghĩa has won three Green Good Design 2019 awards from the European Centre for Architecture, Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.

The designs by the company include Phan Kế Bính House built in HCM City in 2016, Nocenco Café in the central city of Vinh in 2017, and Bamboo Stalactite Pavilion in Venice, Italy in 2017.

According to the organisers, this is the 11th year the institutions had developed this very specialised edition of the original Good Design programme, which was founded in Chicago in 1950 and is the oldest and most important awards programme in the world.

The awards identify and emphasise the world’s most important examples of sustainable design and to develop a public awareness programme about which global companies are doing the best ecological and sustainable design for the environment.

For 2019 awards, the organisers received hundreds of submissions from around the world.

“Members of the European Center’s International Advisory Committee — worldwide leaders in the design industry — served as the jury and selected over 100 new products, programmes, people, environmental planning, and architecture as outstanding examples of Green Design from 20 nations,” Ioannis Karalias, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum’s vice president, wrote in an email to inform the company of its success.

Phan Kế Bính, or the Breathing House, stands on a plot 3.9m wide and 17.8m deep for a single family, located down a small alley in the heart of Hồ Chí Minh City.

“Due to the circumstances of the site, the opening of the building was physically constrained to the front, top and back of the house. In order to adjust the distance between neighbouring buildings while maximizing the opening area, we wrapped the aforementioned three surfaces of the building with a “green veil”, which is made of creeper plants that grow on a steel mesh. This soft layer, as an environmental diffuser, filters direct sunlight and prevents the interior space from overexposure to the outside, without the feeling of isolation,” the company describes on its website.

Nocenco Café is located on the rooftop of a 7-floor building in Vinh.

The existing concrete structure was covered with bamboo which has been converted into an element that creates spatial qualities.

There are 10 bamboo columns to hide the existing structure and four additional columns. These columns elegantly divide the space into different private areas.

“The dome and rectangular spaces on the rooftop fit with the existing L-shaped space. They generate a framed view of the historical stadium and the beautiful cityscape. It also connects two vault bamboo structures that open up to the cityscape,” the website describes.

Bamboo Stalactite is a free community space in Venice, Italy.

“Bamboo helps to create a space, rich in its connection with the beauty of nature, with the sun, the wind and the sea. For that reason, this bamboo space easily becomes the city’s landmark despite its small size,” its website says.

The pavilion comprises 11 modules, each shaped by the combination of two hyperbolic shell structures. Structural beams for the pavillion had already been prepared in Việt Nam before being installed in Venice by Vietnamese and Italian architects and students within 25 days.

Founded in 2006, VTN Architects (Võ Trọng Nghĩa Architects) has become an industry leader in Việt Nam with offices in Hồ Chí Minh City and Hà Nội gathering over 60 international architects, engineers and staff.

The company won the same awards in 2014, 2015,  2017 and 2018 for Farming Kindergarten in Đồng Nai Province, House for Trees in HCM City, S-House 2 in Long An Province, Stone House in Quảng Ninh Province, Atlas Hotel in Quảng Nam Province, Hoan House in Nha Trang City, Đông Anh House, Sơn La Ceremonial Dome, Stacked Planters in HCM City, and Bình House in HCM City. — VNS