About
The Vietnam Soil Atlas is developed by a transdisciplinary team of architects, researchers, and material scientists working across Vietnam, the United States, and Europe. It grows out of a shared conviction: that local soils, ecological conditions, and vernacular building knowledge are not resources to be extracted, but systems to be understood, documented, and carefully applied.
The project is developed through MM Lab, the research platform of arb architects in Hanoi, within the framework of the Experimental Fellowship with Bauhaus Earth. Research, fieldwork, and material testing are carried out in close collaboration with communities, local experts, and academic partners across seven sites in Vietnam.
The Vietnam Soil Atlas is the public record of this ongoing work.
The project is developed through MM Lab, the research platform of arb architects in Hanoi, within the framework of the Experimental Fellowship with Bauhaus Earth. Research, fieldwork, and material testing are carried out in close collaboration with communities, local experts, and academic partners across seven sites in Vietnam.
The Vietnam Soil Atlas is the public record of this ongoing work.
Contact: info@mmrlab.org
Core Team
Nguyễn Hà
Founder arb architects, Vietnam, MM Lab
Nguyễn Hà an architect, founder of arb architects Vietnam, and co-founder of MM Lab. Before establishing arb architects in Vietnam in 2009, she studied and began her architectural practice at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Hà’s practice is concerned with the multidimensional relationships between architecture, local culture, making, traditional craftsmanship, materials, and the sacred, where architecture is understood as a living entity carrying the belief systems of its territory. In 2024, Nguyễn Hà received the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. In 2025, Nguyễn Hà and arb architects received the AR Emerging Awards, recognising the trajectory of a globally promising architectural practice.
E-Mail:0311nguyenha@gmail.com
Kim Hojung
Assistant Prof., University of Tennessee, MM Lab
Kim’s transdisciplinary research examines the cultural, ecological, and socioeconomic dimensions of material practices, with a focus on Southeast Asia. He studies how centralized manufacturing replaces local craft traditions and Indigenous knowledge, marginalizes local communities, and degrades local environments. Alongside his teaching and research, Kim has worked as an architect, project manager, and designer at internationally recognized architecture practices in Los Angeles and New York.
E-Mail:Hkim96@utk.edu
Nguyễn Lê Minh Nhựt
Research Director MM Lab, Vietnam
Nguyễn Lê Minh Nhựt is an architect, co-founder and Research Director of MM Lab, co-founder of Gian Giữa, and a lecturer at Hanoi Architectural University. He graduated with a Master of Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) from The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and has worked at several architectural practices in Vietnam and internationally. His architectural practice is drawn toward the tantalizing: things that are beautiful and always within reach yet can never be fully grasped.
E-Mail:nhutnguyenarch@gmail.com
Photos: Zara Pfeifer
Fellowship framework
The Experimental Fellowship with Bauhaus Earth supports emerging international practitioners and crossdisciplinary teams with applied research experience in developing regenerative, circular, and climate-conscious solutions for a transformative shift in the building sector. The Fellowship provides financial support, mentorship, technical and methodological guidance, as well as access to an international network of research and industry partners.The focus is on regenerative material practices that advance sustainable architecture, emphasizing scientific, rigorous material investigation and its application potential in construction. Through the fellowship, the fellows develop and test building products, construction assemblies, and their application potential in practice.The Experimental Fellowship with Bauhaus Earth supports emerging international practitioners and crossdisciplinary teams with applied research experience in developing regenerative, circular, and climate-conscious solutions for a transformative shift in the building sector. The Fellowship provides financial support, mentorship, technical and methodological guidance, as well as access to an international network of research and industry partners.
The focus is on regenerative material practices that advance sustainable architecture, emphasizing scientific, rigorous material investigation and its application potential in construction. Through the fellowship, the fellows develop and test building products, construction assemblies, and their application potential in practice.
Within this framework, Situated Regionalism explores how regionally specific soils, ecological conditions, and vernacular building knowledge can inform regenerative earthen construction in Vietnam. The project translates the Fellowship’s focus on rigorous material research into a site-specific investigation of unfired brick construction. The Vietnam Soil Atlas documents and shares this knowledge as a publicly accessible resource for future design and building practices.
Within this framework, Situated Regionalism explores how regionally specific soils, ecological conditions, and vernacular building knowledge can inform regenerative earthen construction in Vietnam. The project translates the Fellowship’s focus on rigorous material research into a site-specific investigation of unfired brick construction. The Vietnam Soil Atlas documents and shares this knowledge as a publicly accessible resource for future design and building practices.
Chrissie Muhr
Experimental Co-Managing Director
Chrissie Muhr is an architect, researcher, and curator based in Basel. She is Co-Managing Director and Artistic Director of the Experimental Foundation. Alongside her institutional work, she leads curatorial and editorial projects on reuse, material culture, and regenerative design, including the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025. Most recently, in 2026, she was Visiting Professor at TU Vienna. In 2025, she founded the Multispecies Spaces Lab at HGK Basel.
E-Mail:muhr@experimental-foundation.org
Eda Özdemir
Bauhaus Earth Program Manager
Eda is a trained architect with a background in applied research, sustainable materials, and computational design. She holds a B.Sc. in Architectural Sciences from Politecnico di Milano and an M.Sc. from the ITECH programme at the University of Stuttgart. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate at the University of Kassel. Eda applies her interdisciplinary expertise to drive progress toward net-zero and circular economy goals. She supports fellows in developing their projects and manages external partnerships for the Fellowship.
E-Mail:ozdemir@bauhauserde.org
Laura Bertelt
Experimental Program Manager
Laura Margarete Bertelt is Program Manager at Experimental, where she works closely with the fellows and program partners at the intersection of architectural research and building practice. She studied architecture and urbanism in Düsseldorf, Milan, and Weimar, and works across different formats and collaborations within architectural and spatial discourse. Her focus lies on housing and future forms of living together, asking how regenerative building practices can contribute to more just and climate-conscious ways of building and inhabiting.
E-Mail:bertelt@experimental-foundation.org
Photos: Debora Mittelstaedt, Hyo Wook Kim (middle picture)
