DR. ARCH. NGUYEN MINH QUANG RECEIVED SPECIAL MENTIONS IN THE FIFTH MANUEL DE SOLÀ-MORALES EUROPEAN PRIZE 2025

“Forest and Water Urbanism” has been widely investigated. This is an area of study that stands within Landscape Urbanism. The term indicates a way of reading and studying urbanism through the lenses of landscape. If the land is covered by forest and water, it is about how to reimagine urbanism through forest and water landscapes.

Dr. Arch. Minh Quang Nguyen, a lecturer in urban design at the Institute of Smart City and Management - University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, has spent almost a decade researching in depth this field. He has conducted research on a transect in the region of Hue City. The region is a “pars pro toto” of the three to four parallel lines of landscape structure (i.e., mountains, vast foothills, plains, and a lagoon) in Central Vietnam. These can be conceptualized as the four “ecological floors.” The magnificent landscape and dynamic hydro system set a great framework that accommodates different settlement structures by several groups, including Mon-Khmer, Cham, and Viet. By using interpretive mapping and critical exploration of a section, the thesis unravels how different forests, water landscapes, topography, soil, settlements, and problems related to them (like global warming and urban issues) affect each other across scales and over time. Additionally, the dissertation employs research by design as a tool of reflection to project different scenarios of forest and water as a landscape infrastructure to re-balance the vernacular and political as well as creating new ways to settle with/in the landscape. As a conclusion, the research questions present-day land-use categories and proposes new hybridized terms to trigger alternative planning and urban design for Vietnamese territories in transformation.

With all these innovative proposals, Quang’s doctoral thesis titled “Forest and Water Urbanism to Adapt to Global Warming: A Case Study in Central Vietnam” has been awarded “Special Mention” in the Fifth Manuel de Solà-Morales European Prize 2025, on 19 March, at Barcelona School of Architecture, the bi-annual award for the best PhD in urbanism from a European university. This year, there is a record number of submissions: 68 PhDs from 43 universities in 17 countries. As the final verdict, there is 1 winner, 4 special mentions, and 3 finalists. According to the jury, the thesis is a great contribution to the field of “Forest and Water Urbanism.”