Vo Trong Nghia and his studio have established a reputation both in Vietnam and elsewhere for incorporating local and inexpensive materials in their designs.

Recently, architecture firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects, which was established in 2006, was named the "Architect of The Year" in Dezeen magazine’s annual architecture awards. Currently in its second installment, the Dezeen Award features a judging panel comprised of 75 international pioneers in architecture and design.

The judges comment that "the studio has an acute awareness of the context that it is working in. Vietnam's past is very much present in the work but it also recognizes the modernity of the country. Vo Trong Nghia's projects signify a transition from old to new. The studio has developed its own school of thought and its own techniques."

One of the firm’s latest completed projects, the Viettel Academy Educational Center, also won Dezeen’s "Civic Building of the Year." Located in the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park, 30 kilometers from central Hanoi, the building features 12 individual blocks connected to each other by a well-ventilated system of walkways.

Also, while not designed by a Vietnamese firm, the 40,000-square-foot campus of the Stars Engineers Factory and Administrative Building in Hanoi won the magazine's "Business Building of the Year" category. The building was designed by VDGA Architects, a firm based in India.

[Photo via Vo Trong Nghia]