CLAD PEOPLE
Without green design we’re finished Vo Trong Nghia founder Vo Trong Nghia Architects
V
ietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia has
environmental materials. Otherwise, we will all
it’s not as expensive as they think. We have to
told CLADmag that real estate developers
die very soon because of climate change, conflict
change people’s mindsets.”
must push for green design practices if
and misuse of technology.”
human beings are to survive and prosper.
Nghia himself arrived at his nature-conscious
Nghia’s studio promote this nature friendly
mindset after taking up meditation. He and his
philosophy in their work, particularly in their
staff meditate twice a day, and he has attended
bamboo leisure buildings – said humans have
leisure designs such as Naman Retreat and Roc
five Vipanassa courses, where you spend 10 days
become too disconnected from nature, “causing
Von restaurant in Vietnam, and their contribution
in silence and devote your time to meditation.
conflict, wars and the destruction of the planet.
to the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale – a
Nghia – who is best known for his intricate
“Capitalism requires development, but development needs a lot of energy,” he said. “If we
meditation zone surrounded by plants.
He told CLADmag: “I think anyone, not only creative people, should refresh themselves this
“With all our projects we look at the
way. It changes your way of observing the world
continue to develop at this rate, in this way, we’ll
surrounding nature and see how we can
and your perspective. People think of human
keep destroying nature and then we’re facing the
harmonise with that,” said Nghia. “Restaurants,
beings and nature as two separate things, but
end. In Asia, the problem is very serious because
cafés and hotels don’t have to be concrete,
humans are just a small part of nature.
the population is so big. Mega cities face
especially in tropical climates. Nice design is
“It can help us to care more for the natural
pollution, traffic jams, the destruction of greenery.
about function and beauty, of course, but also
world. Without this philosophy, we’re finished.”
It’s a mentality problem – developers cannot be
how to make humans much more connected
calmed down, they always require development.
to nature. We hope our projects can persuade
“Our challenge as architects across the world is dealing with high density, high consumption,
people living nearby to think this way. “We also use our work to try and persuade
high energy while moving closer to nature. In the
clients about the benefits of our approach. The
very near future we have to become more green
problem is maintenance – developers think it’s
– using things like green walls and roofs and
too expensive to maintain green buildings. In fact,
The Vo Trong Nghiadesigned Roc Von restaurant opened in rural Vietnam earlier this year
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