Pham Huu Loc (R), a Vietnamese student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and his co-workers have won first prize at the 2013 International Tropical Architecture Design Competition in Singapore.

SINGAPORE  (VNS) — Pham Huu Loc, a Vietnamese student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and his co-workers have won first prize at the 2013 International Tropical Architecture Design Competition in Singapore.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore yesterday announced that Loc's team, which includes his schoolfellow Ng Pui Shan (Hong Kong) and Hoang Van Anh (Viet Nam) from Australia's University of Melbourne, won the award for its entry "Mushroom Community Campus".

Based on a bionic design concept of using fresh air, daylight and water features, the campus design utilises natural resources. An innovative earth-air tunnel reduces the energy required for conditioning the air by using the thermal properties of the earth as a heat exchanger.

the event, Trinh Phuong Quan from the HCM City University of Architecture also presented a merit for the project "Green Campus on the Wetlands". Quan will receive an award on housing architecture in Italy later this month.

Organised by the BCA in conjunction with the Institute of Architects and the Green Building Council of Singapore, the competition attracted 19 teams from China, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Viet Nam.

Professor Tan Tian Chong from NUS said: "Viet Nam is very good at architecture, especially projects requiring environmental protection."

Last year, Loc won first prize in the International Green Architecture student category in Singapore. — VNSAt