The graduation project “Conservation Planning: Inheritance & Development of Loc Yen Ancient Village, Tien Phuoc” by DTU student Tran Tan Duy won a third prize in the 2024 Student Graduation Project awards in the category urban planning.
MA Arch. Tran Ngoc Phuong, lecturer at the DTU International School, with Tan Duy at the award ceremony. Photo: DTU
High appreciation for good design thinking
The Student Graduation Project awards are presented by the Vietnam Urban Development Planning Association. This year, 64 projects from various universities participated: the Hanoi Architectural University, the University of Architecture Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, the HCMC University of Technology, and DTU. The projects were divided into three categories: urban planning (47 projects), urban technical infrastructure planning (7 projects), and urban management (10 projects).
The jury highly appreciated the graduation project “Conservation Planning: Inheritance & Development of Loc Yen Ancient Village, Tien Phuoc” by DTU student Tran Tan Duy for showing good design thinking, use of design software, hand-drawing, communication, teamwork, and critical thinking.
These strengths earned Tan Duy’s graduation project a third prize in the urban planning category (with the highest number of entries), where it competed against many projects by skilled students from the country’s top universities in planning, urban technical infrastructure, and urban management.
Tan Duy’s graduation project “Conservation Planning: Inheritance & Development
of Loc Yen Ancient Village, Tien Phuoc” won third place in urban planning. Photo: DTU
Contributing ideas for local planning
Tan Duy chose to focus on planning and developing an ancient village as a way to express his gratitude to his homeland. “The project ‘Conservation Planning: Inheritance & Development of Loc Yen Ancient Village, Tien Phuoc’ is a scientific research project to which I have dedicated a lot of effort and passion,” he explains.
“There’s many reasons why I chose this topic, but most important for me was the desire to contribute ideas to planning the place I was born and raised.”
With many concerns and a special love for his roots, Tan Duy realized that, while the ancient village of Loc Yen still retains the features of a traditional Central Vietnamese village nearly intact, it is gradually deteriorating and its landscape is being altered due to urbanization of the countryside.
“In the project, I proposed many design objectives,” Tan Duy explains. “Preserving the old houses intact as they were inherited, renovating architectural spaces that don’t fit in the village, creating residential spaces integrated with green agriculture…
“I also suggested designs for spaces for relaxation and to experience traditional craft-village culture, to preserve and make use of tangible and intangible cultural heritage values linked to sustainable tourism development, and to create jobs and improve the villagers’ material and spiritual lives.”
Earlier, at the 13th national Architecture Student Festival, Tan Duy was one of four DTU students who, together with a group of students from the University of Architecture HCMC, won first prize in the mural painting competition with Weaving Sea Flowers. The artwork depicts the sea-side city of Phu Yen, with highs and lows resembling free-flowing notes of music.
Tan Duy (far right) with the student group that won first prize in the mural
drawing competition at the 13th national Architecture Student Festival. Photo: DTU
Tan Duy was born and raised in a farming family in Tien Cam Commune, Tien Phuoc District, Quang Nam. His father is a second-class war invalid who joined the military at the age of 18.
His parents’ sacrifices and efforts have been his greatest motivation to focus on his studies and personal development.
“I have a special passion for design,” Tan Duy confides. “Whenever I have some free time, I’ll find a quiet corner to unleash my creativity and sketch projects based on personal ideas. This helps me relax and develop new ideas.
“For me, DTU is not just a place for learning, but also an ideal environment to comprehensively develop many of my other strengths. A lecturer who has inspired and supported me a lot during my graduation project was MA Arch. Tran Ngoc Phuong.”
(Media Center)