Student awards strengthen the foundations for green building design

On 11 December 2020, Vice Minister Le Quang Hung, the Ministry of Construction, and Mr Kia Fariborz, Director of the SIPA Programme and leading the PEEB Viet Nam Component, German Development Cooperation GIZ Viet Nam, gave rewards to the winners of the Green Architectural Design Student Awards 2020, which were honoured at a ceremony held by the Vietnam Green Urban Institute and GIZ in Hanoi. Seventy graduate students from eleven universities took part in the competition this year, submitting a total of 50 projects on a variety of themes including housing, industry, culture, tourism, and education.

National University of Civil Engineering graduate, Doan Van Thuong won the first prize for his design for a floating Village in a mangrove forest on the Giao Thuy Estuary.
“Architecture exists all around us. Therefore, when it comes to green building design, everyone has the ability to participate in creating a vision for a sustainably built environment,” said Thuong.
Prizes were also awarded for two second place projects, three third place projects, five runners-up projects, and for eight thematic awards. Notable examples include a low-cost green housing project for resettling low-income urban populations in Hue City; the transformation of run-down apartment blocks into green residential developments in Hanoi; and a flower village along the banks of the Red River.

“The designs submitted for these awards have the potential to shape the buildings of the future. With their innovative thinking in visualising green buildings, I have no doubt the students have the talent to join the innovative practitioners at the leading edge of green design in Viet Nam”. – said Kia Fariborz, SIPA Programme Director and leading PEEB Component Viet Nam.

This year’s ceremony, held as part of Viet Nam Green Building Week 2020, was organised by the Vietnam Green Urban Institute with support from the Global Programme for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (PEEB), which GIZ implements in Viet Nam under the umbrella the SIPA (Support to Vietnam for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement) project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

Judging of the awards fell to members of the Evaluation Council, which was made up of representatives from the Ministry of Construction, the Vietnam Association of Architecture, the Vietnam Association of Civil Engineering and Environment, the Vietnam Green Urban Institute, as well as architectural design firms and universities and a representative from PEEB. The Council applied general green architectural design criteria and PEEB criteria for Energy Efficient Buildings, which sets the standards for green buildings as a mitigation action under Vietnam’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement.

The PEEB programme is a French-German initiative, jointly implemented by the French Agency for Development (AFD), GIZ, and the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), and coordinated by the Global Alliance of Building and Construction with its Secretariat hosted at the United Nation Environmental Program (UNEP).

The Vietnam Green Urban Institute is a science agency that generates sustainable development solutions for urban and building construction. The main responsibility of the Institute is to carry out scientific research projects for the Ministry of Construction implementing experimental projects that apply green and sustainable technology solutions. The Institute also focuses on training and orienting the young generation towards green and sustainable construction through short training courses and annual awards for architecture and construction universities.