According to The Architectural Review, Nguyen Ha was named one of the final four nominees for the prestigious honor due to her and her colleagues' outstanding work, particularly on the Dao Mau Museum and Temple project in Soc Son district, Ha Noi.

Nguyen Ha is the winner of the 2024 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture (Photo: Nguyen Ha/Facebook).

The Dao Mau Museum and Temple is one of only two projects designed by Ha. It is the ‘lifetime dream’ of the client and renowned performing artist Xuan Hinh. Dao Mau refers to the worship of Mother Goddesses, with ‘Dao’ translated as ‘religion’ and ‘Mau’ as ‘mother’. It is a long-standing Vietnamese folk belief system with significant cultural and spiritual value in the Vietnamese people's spiritual lives.

The work features brick towers built along a brick wall in a lychee orchard, as well as the transformation of a former weekend retreat into a temple. The architect cleverly combines the poetic materiality of used tiles with her interpretation of place. All existing trees have been kept, and a long wall has been added along the plot’s northern edge, creating a guiding axis along the stretch of the garden.

While the owner initially wanted a wider entryway to host big crowds, Ha persuaded him that a narrower path would be more appropriate; it intimately responds to the human body and creates a sensory transition as visitors walk along the wall, brushing against the tiled surface.

Dao Mau Museum and Temple is one of only two projects designed by Ha, with her Hanoi-based practice ARB Architects (Photo: Bao tang Dao Mau/Facebook)

‘It is an architecture of solitude,’ said Ha. ‘Most of the time our daily struggles weigh us down, and architecture can help us to reconnect with our inner serenity, to dream and aspire to greater things.’

As a temple, Ha's work takes on a more symbolic meaning. The long path serves as a threshold between the secular experiences of the outside world and the sacred inner spaces of the temple.

"Nguyen Ha sees what isn't evident and discovers a project that isn't a project," the judges stated. They complimented her work for preserving "important practices of craftsmanship, achieved through resilience and persistence."

Lotus pond in the Dao Mau Museum and Temple (Photo: Bao tang Dao Mau/Facebook)

"I hope this first and small achievement will give more motivation to architects to courageously continue their journey," Ha said. Professionals, architects, and art enthusiasts from around Vietnam and beyond the world praised the project as well.

Born in 1980, Ha was granted a full scholarship for a Master's Degree at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland (ETHZ). In 2010, she co-founded ARB Architects in Vietnam with her Swiss-trained architects Kurt Aellen and Laurent Cantalou. She also gained valuable international work experience by taking part in various projects in Morocco, France, and Switzerland.

Phu Yen's Tower Square Earns 2023 Asian Townscape Award Many visitors to Tuy Hoa City, in the south central coastal province of Phu Yen, feel that Nghinh Phong Tower is like a work in ...

“Decoding The Mystery Of Kinh Thien Palace Architecture” Opens In Hanoi On November 29, the Institute of Imperial City Studies coordinated with the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports and the Hanoi Museum to open the ...

Vietnamese Architecture Major Wins the International Graduation Projects Award 2023 The graduation project "Culture of the Sea Museum" by Tran Thi Chi - a Course 24 student majoring in Architecture at Van Lang University won ...