Interview with Scene Plus

Scene Plus ("SP") interviewed on Monday, 10 May.

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?

SP : With a background in architecture from 1999, I obtained master degree in landscape design at ENSA Versailles in 2005 and a in Urban Planning at IUP in 2007. Since 2005, I have worked with Lecaron Architecte who has the projects considered European heritages in France. I came back to Vietnam in 2009 with an ambition to work and to get more and more experiences in my country and I have been involved in many interesting projects while working for several international firms like Hyder Consulting, B+H Architects, dwp...in a role of senior architect, landscape architect, urban planner. With 20 years extensive experience in all phases of building process in Vietnam and France, I am the Founder and director of Scene Plus Architects, a prestigious urban planning and architecture consulting firm in Ho Chi Minh City, specializing in designing and consulting sustainable development projects, Implementing projects on urban planning, master planning, housing projects, tourism, hotels, health & education; develops research on bioclimatic solutions, ventilation and uses natural energy efficiently. In 2018, I have completed the EMBA at the UQAM, Canada, become an expert in management, strategy, spatial planning and land use planning, effective use of integrated resources, to develop a world-class professional collaborator network to provide the best quality consulting services to clients, State administration authorities. My company is a collaborator of AUF via Hanoi Architecture University, co-organizer for a chain of on-site workshops to operate Living-Lab method in Urban Planning and Education. I have been involved in scientific committee of CIGOS 2019 organized by AVSE, in charge of Urban Planning, Transport and Environment Session. I have been also invited by AUF to present at the AUF’s 2019 annual conference in Dakar, Senegal about the Living-Lab method for Urban Planning in Vietnam: “State - Academy - Enterprise - Society, an operational model for planning the city”. I am also involved in projects such as KC, CIGOS, Development strategy consulting for Bac Lieu, HCM city of the Association of Vietnamese Scientists and Experts (AVSE Global).

How did you become a designer?

SP : With a passion in nature, in landscape since I was a child, I was inspired by my father who was biologist, I loved to draw, paint the scenery, the houses with garden. I became naturally a designer in a simple way like that. After graduation from Hanoi Architecture University, I have worked for more than 1 year in heritage restoration and conservation industry in Hue city, ancient imperial capital of Vietnam. I have chance to understand the traditional architecture, landscape, planning also the cultural integration in the French colonial period. Working with Lecaron Architecte in France reinforce my design orientation. I am particularly interested in conservation and exploiting the heritage value of the nature and the culture on each site we study. Do planning, landscaping and urban design, in a large scale, open spaces, I always orient my designs for buildings, even for interior to open toward the nature, to view to landscape.

What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?

SP : For us, the name of our firm explains our philosophy: Scene is not only a silent landscape, but also a Scene in the movie. You can see the landscape, the architecture, hear the music and the conversations, feel the emotions of personages, you see the life! Plus signifies that for each design, we have to find 5 other elements : Locomotive (like the motor of an engine, a reason for existence) of development, the Sustainable, the Humanity, the High quality, the Cost control... to create an unique design, unique project. We never copy from our-self, neither from somewhere else. Each design is unique. To do a design, a project, we have to pass through the process : site analysis, evaluate about the access, natural and cultural condition, proposal by hand sketches, then do the concept design, then the last but not least the execution documents. Sometimes we do the mock-ups and physical models, but almost time we do computer aided design and renderings.

What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?

SP : With a passion in nature, in landscape since I was a child, I was inspired by my father who was biologist, I loved to draw, paint the scenery, the houses with garden. I became naturally a designer in a simple way like that.