Architect Nguyen Ha: Drawing brings more joy than money

Few people expected that before becoming the first Vietnamese to receive the Moira Gemmil Architecture Prize (UK) in the category of Young and Promising Female Architect, architect Nguyen Ha was "famous" as a "rejected" architect, with no designs built for nearly 20 years.

"A gamble"

* What does the Moira Gemmil Award for Young Architects mean to you?

- Of course, everyone is happy to receive an award. It's an honor. This is an award that they nominated themselves, not me.

Before they gave me this award, the Mother Goddess Museum was selected as one of the 14 best works of 2023 by the prestigious Italian design and architecture magazine Domus.

While Domus only considers architecture from a purely architectural perspective, the Moira Gemmil Prize emphasizes the social criticism of architecture. I am happy that my design is recognized worldwide in both criteria.

In my recent Moira Gemmil Award acceptance speech, I said: there is a very thin line between conservatism and perseverance. When your efforts go unrecognized for a long time, you are considered a conservatist.

But when you get recognized, that conservatism is immediately called perseverance. I could have been considered a conservative for 20 years, and when I got the award, it was called perseverance.

* Before being recognized by the prestigious award, you were "famous" as a "rejected" architect. Why did artist Xuan Hinh agree to build the most important project of his life from your design, when he had previously worked with several famous architects?

- Initially, artist Xuan Hinh sought out the best and most famous architects to design the Mother Goddess Museum, but the project was not successful. He sought out architect Pho Duc Tung and Mr. Tung introduced me to him.

Seeing that I had no reputation and had not built any projects, he still trusted me to work with me after I answered his question about what he would build this project with. He liked my idea of ​​building from old tiles.

I am very grateful to Xuan Hinh for having faith in me when I had no achievements. He chose me as a gamble. He said he saw in me a single-mindedness, when I set my mind to something, I would not be affected by anything, just silently do it.

* What are you most satisfied with in the Mother Goddess Museum?

- People visiting the museum are impressed by the meticulousness of the tiled constructions...

But some of my friends, architect Doan Ky Thanh and artist Son X, immediately realized that the beauty of my design is to see the hidden beauty of the garden and preserve and honor that beauty through architectural works.

In other words, the architecture at that time was only a backdrop for the beauty of the garden.

The first time I came here, I was impressed by the garden with ancient lychee trees shaped like incense, very suitable to be placed in a temple.

I decided to keep the garden, avoiding cutting down any trees. All constructions were only interspersed and surrounded the garden and honored the beauty of the garden.

Architecture is a tough profession.

* How can an architect make a living if he draws projects that never get built?

- Some architects who are not yet famous often choose to accept free or very low cost for their initial architectural ideas, I am not like that.

I firmly believe that architecture is not a work of art drawn in a few minutes but is the result of a process of accumulating one's own intelligence and experience, so clients must pay for architectural ideas even if they do not use them.

Of course the money is not much but I can still live, sometimes I also renovate houses for friends.

* How did you overcome the feeling of being "rejected" as an architect for nearly 20 years?

- If I get rejected a few times, I'm probably sad, but if I get rejected 100 times, how can I be sad anymore? Being rejected over and over again makes me have no expectations when I draw.

To the point that if the client agrees with my design and allows construction, I am surprised, but if it is rejected, it is normal.

Because I don't expect anything, I just want to draw the best thing I want, work hard, and success or failure is not up to me.

I have to keep going. The act of creating a design brings me joy, without the need for it to become a real building.

Mother Goddess Museum - Photo: Trieu Chien

* But can you compromise a little to get your designs accepted by customers?

- The architecture profession is very harsh. Each construction project takes a few years or longer. A good architect can practice for 50 years at most, equivalent to about 10 projects. If he has a partner, he can do a little more.

So do you want to accept doing things you don't like? Life would be boring and dull. So I choose not to compromise.

That choice was neither whim nor determination.

It is simply my personal choice, the choice of someone who wants to be free and happy. The other choice of compromise is the choice of suffering for me.

* What do you think about the nickname "weird traveler" that people give you?

- That's the name Ms. Tram Vu at Manzi Art Space gave me when she proposed to exhibit my rejected designs in 2022.

I respect how people perceive and evaluate me. They see that I don't follow the common path that everyone else does, maybe I'm not like everyone else. But I don't think I'm weird.

I just choose to be happy. For me, being an architect, drawing architecture is fun. Drawing brings me more joy than money.

* You must have a strong inner strength to be able to be so steadfast on the path you have chosen?

- I'm simply too carefree and forgetful. I forget joy or sadness very quickly, to start something new. I don't let joy or sadness stick to me.

Architect Nguyen Ha was born in 1980. After graduating from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Civil Engineering, she received a scholarship to study architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. After working in Switzerland for a while, in 2010 she returned to Vietnam and opened a practice office with two Swiss architects.

The Mother Goddess Museum was built by artist Xuan Hinh on a garden of thousands of square meters in Hien Ninh commune, Soc Son district, Hanoi.

He considered this the work of his life to show gratitude to Mother Goddess, to show gratitude to ancestors for many years of "blessings" to him, and to educate his descendants about gratitude to ancestors. He named the museum Linh Tu - drinking water, remembering the source.

The Mother Goddess Museum impresses with its idea of ​​building modern architecture from millions of old tiles instead of bricks as usual. Xuan Hinh spent two years purchasing old tiles from hundreds of households across the country.

The museum is not only a temple to worship the Mother Goddess but also a place to preserve cultural items, folk art, musical heritage... that Xuan Hinh has collected over the past decades. This is also a place to preserve memories of his career.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/kien-truc-su-nguyen-ha-ve-mang-lai-nhieu-niem-vui-hon-tien-bac-20240321100652656.htm