Practical and elegant

Architect Nguyen Tuan Anh has won success for himself and his company by focusing on the core values of architecture: beauty and functionality.

Anyone meeting Mr Nguyen Tuan Anh will immediately feel the gentleness of a Hanoian. First impressions are about his practical and also elegant expressions, in movement and speaking. And those expressions can also be found in his architectural works, which have brought him significant success in his young life and architectural career. 

While full of breakthrough creativity, Mr Tuan Anh’s architectural works first and foremost focus on beauty and functionality in harmony with the surroundings. “Architecture is a social product that serves the needs of society,” he explained. “So it must have practical value and high artistic value. I always try to realise both in my designs,” Mr Tuan Anh said. “For me, artistic value comes when both users and outsiders feel and recognise that it is beautiful.”

Mr Tuan Anh is not just about the size of his architectural works. Small works done beautifully, he believes, are better than huge ones done with ignorance. “All architects like big works, to have more space to express their ideas and more opportunities to be recognised,” he said. “But I focus on the core values of functionality and beauty rather than size. Small works like Thap Rua (Tortoise Pagoda) in Hoan Kiem Lake have major cultural value, while some large buildings are not really recognised as being valuable.” 

As Director of ATEK, a design consultancy company under the CDC Corporation, since 2004 Mr Tuan Anh has channelled that architectural standpoint to many works he and his team have completed. Though not having any gigantic, breathtaking projects, he and his team have impressed with user convenience, environmental friendliness and gentle beauty. 

These are best seen in the new Hanoi Amsterdam School, which opened on September 4 in Hanoi. The school specialises in highly talented and outstanding students. It was one of the main construction items for the education sector in the celebrations for Hanoi’s 1,000th anniversary. ATEK won out over 20 other designs to secure a unanimous vote from project judges. 

The new school covers five hectares in the Dong Nam urban area on Tran Duy Hung Street, which is one of the most modern urban areas in Hanoi. Looked from on high, the school’s buildings, stadium, tower, yard, and garden are organised in an elegant symphony. 

Inside the school is a very wide and long corridor connecting main classroom blocs and the wide schoolyard. It is a reasonable divide and also a connection between activities inside and outside of class for the students.

There are also various other open spaces. “The school architecture aims to dissolve the dry educational philosophy of imposing frames of already-known things on people,” said Mr Tuan Anh. “I designed the school to not only have an academic character but also to liberalise people and their minds.

I want to use the architectural space to change the educational standpoint and philosophy. I want to send the message that education is not only about intellectual knowledge but also about social exchanges, feelings and creativity. Students are the main creators, not classes. Where there are students there are classes.”

Passion and concerns

Born in Hanoi in 1977, Nguyen Tuan Anh has lived in the city all his life. He graduated from the Hanoi Architecture University in 1999 with excellent grades, then embraced his career with a warm passion that has been brewing for more than ten years. 

“Before and during my time at university I felt that architecture was a suitable career for me,” he said. “I like something that is natural, open and not too regulated. It can be regulated in some instances but it must also leave me a certain space for my own thinking and creativity. But architecture is a difficult job to follow. It requires capacity, passion and a good environment to develop, and I am lucky enough to have all three.” 

Like anyone growing up in Hanoi and particularly as an architect, Mr Tuan Anh feels embarrassed about the capital’s modern architecture. The city is booming too quickly, somehow out of the control of local architectural and management authorities. Houses are built in a disorderly fashion, primarily aimed at maximising the use of space. In many cases public spaces are encroached upon. Then there is the matter of their artistic value, or lack thereof. 

“Hanoi has two main constraints,” he said. “Firstly, there are too many constraints in economic and resource terms. Secondly, city authorities are short on management capacity. Consequently, architecture in Hanoi is disordered and messy. At the basic level, both practical use and artistic values are not high in Hanoi, not to mention lacking in any unique architectural character.” 

While understanding the reasons behind the disorderly development and management difficulties in a booming city, Mr Tuan Anh nonetheless believes that there are practical ways for Hanoi authorities to manage development better. 

In talking about the mushrooming of foreign-invested buildings in Hanoi, he is concerned that these buildings are too “foreign”. They are like strange items stuck to the city’s area without any cultural connection. Ultimately, they do not bring very much value to either investors or the public. In the long term, this is a dilemma for the city. 

“In several high-rise buildings, mostly invested by foreigners, people do not see any character of the city embraced in their designs,” he said. “They are too ‘showy’ and only serve foreigners or rich Vietnamese. The general public doesn’t see them as part of the city. If only some of the space at these buildings were set aside for public use, the public would welcome them and maintain them.” 

“I suggest that foreign investors conduct due diligence in cultural research when investing in Vietnam,” he continued. “They should not consider their investment in purely material terms but rather in spiritual terms. Then, beside the material gains, they will also receive the respect of local people.

Their buildings will be welcomed as a mixture of two cultures. Only then will these buildings stay with the city in the long term. Otherwise, after 30 or 40 years, Hanoi will become a garbage dump of unusable buildings.”

Mr Tuan Anh is preparing for a new development period in his career. He is gathering associates and partners who share the same architectural ideas to establish a company. He expects that this new direction will allow him more freedom to express his ideas. Another soaring stage of his life is just about to begin.

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