The creator of Xuan Hinh's Mother Goddess Museum is the world's most promising young architect.

Architect Nguyen Ha (right) received the award for promising young female architect in the world - Photo: NVCC

Passionate about pursuing a unique design style, female architect Nguyen Ha has been rejected enough to open an exhibition with rejected projects in nearly 20 years of practicing architecture.

Yet she became the first Vietnamese architect to receive the prestigious Moira Gemmill Award - an award for the world's most promising young female designers under 45 years old.

From "rejected" architect

In July 2022, female architect Nguyen Ha surprised the public with the exhibition "The Strange Traveler or the Story of Rejected Projects" held in Hanoi.

The exhibition features 24 models of completed but abandoned projects.

As soon as they were announced to the public, these models were highly appreciated by the architectural community for their beauty and the architects' unlimited creativity.

It was this exhibition about his own "failure" that helped architect Nguyen Ha become more widely known.

By 2023, the Mother Goddess Museum she designed for artist Xuan Hinh was listed in the list of 14 best architectural works in the world voted by Domus magazine.

This project is famous for being made from 5 million ancient roof tiles and millions of ancient bricks purchased from 500 households across the country.

Amidst the cool green space, the shapes made from tiles and bricks stand out, creating a highlight for the museum. This design is also a famous work because of its unique architecture - relying on nature.

"The most difficult thing is to recognize and see the beauty of nature, but we have to intervene in it, but if we don't intervene, we can't do anything, so when we encounter a poetic natural scene, we often find it very difficult to put anything in it.

However, I believe that humans can place spaces in dialogue with nature, creating emotions that no other nature can bring about," architect Nguyen Ha shared.

And it was the Mother Goddess Museum project that became the leading foundation that helped her enter the top 4 nominations for the Moira Gemmill Award.

Female architect works with artist Xuan Hinh on the Mother Goddess Museum project - Photo: NVCC

First Vietnamese architect to receive Moira Gemmill Award

Surpassing three competitors: Kim Courrèges (France), Joana Dabaj (Lebanon) and Noelia Monteiro (Brazil), on the morning of March 8 (evening of March 7, Canada time), female architect Nguyen Ha was officially announced as the world's most promising young architect in 2024.

Speaking at the award ceremony, architect Nguyen Ha shared that winning the Moira Gemmill Award has great significance and is an honor for her.

"This recognition has helped me realize many things on my path of practicing architecture. For me, architecture must first have its own beauty, and at the same time, how that beauty and meaning impact society, and how it is critical to society. Architecture for me must encompass the above two values," the female architect confided.

Architect Nguyen Ha was born in 1980 in Hanoi. After graduating from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Civil Engineering, she received a full scholarship from the Swiss Government to study master's degree in architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

After working in Switzerland for a while, in 2010 she returned home and opened a practice office with two architects Laurent Cantalou and Kurt Aellen (Switzerland).

Currently, she is the founder and architect of Arb Architects Vietnam.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-sang-tao-bao-tang-dao-mau-cua-xuan-hinh-la-kien-truc-su-tre-trien-vong-nhat-the-gioi-20240308102703342.htm