Vo Trong Nghia is a Vietnamese architect famous for his environmentally sustainable designs. He employs raw materials from his country, especially bamboo, and gives back to his fellowmen by helping them build homes with his unique ideas. This ingenious and selfless attribute didn’t go unnoticed by another popular architect David Adjaye, of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History of the United States. The latter was so impressed by Nghia that he asked him to guest on the January 9, 2015 episode of no less than CNN in its show “Ones to Watch.”

Nghia studied Architecture at the University of Tokyo. He then returned to Vietnam in 2006 and put up his own company, Vo Trong Nghia Architects. He received several not only local, but in fact, international awards such as the World Architecture Festival Award and the ARCASIA (Architects Regional Council Asia) Award, proof that he is very good in his work.

“Ones to Watch” is a show on CNN which features fresh talents and potential celebrities in the fields of culture and arts. Its January episode touched on architecture, thus the discovery of Nghia. Other one-of-a-kind architects were also featured in the show, Kunle Adeyemi and Daniel Libeskind. The former is a Nigerian architect who thought of an unconventional way of solving the building problems in his country in which most cities fronted the beach. The latter is a New York-based architect who was named Master Planner of the rehabilitation of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 tragedy. He designed the building Centre De Congres in the Belgian City of Mons, another world-class work of art.

Nghia gained global recognition because of his environmentally-friendly and sustainable creations. Adeyemi and Libeskind stand on the conviction that modern architecture should not boast on constructing the biggest or most complicated edifices, but rather work on building secure but earth-friendly structures that will make the world better and last longer.