Local hero wins two int’l architecture awards

A view inside the Wind and Water Café, designed by architect Vo Trong Nghia in Binh Duong Province

Vietnam’s top architect Vo Trong Nghia took home two prizes at the 2009 International Architecture Awards in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this month.

Wind and Water Café, which is built almost entirely of bamboo and uses a central pond as a natural air conditioner, is located in Binh Duong Province’s Thu Dau Mot Town, 20 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City. The Trung Nguyen Coffee Culture Center is located in Hanoi.

Last May, Nghia won the Silver prize at the Global Holcim Awards 2009 along with Japanese architects Kazuhiro Kojima and Daisuke Sanuki, with whom he designed a project to build a low-impact, ecologically-friendly university campus in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

Source: Thanh Nien