The office of architect Võ Trọng Hồng is on the fifth floor of an old collective housing block in Hanoi. We visited him in the early afternoon to talk about how he has changed over the past two years, about the way he practises architecture and design alongside his love of painting, and about the book he is about to publish.
Hello Hồng. You have spent two years preparing your book, and it is now almost finished.
Personally, the past two years have stayed much the same; my work hasn’t changed much. The change came before 2020, and I noticed it while I was drawing. The book collects the paintings I made from 2017 to 2020, along with the way of thinking and the way of expressing things from that time. I told Hiếu about this and said I wanted to make a book about that period, because it was surely going to end. That is how the book came about.
Between architecture and painting, which do you find it easier to connect with?
When I had just graduated from university, my head was full of ideals; at school we were taught almost nothing but perfect things. Later, when I started working and designing, I ran into reality much more and began to understand what I could and couldn’t do, and found more balance. For me, architecture and painting are different. In painting, emotion comes first; it is the source and is deeply personal, and when I paint I am in control of everything. Architecture, for me, is a science; it also holds emotion, but very little. Everything in architecture and design demands precise calculation of data and figures. So I find it easier to connect with painting.
Your office was at first loosely called TÔ Architecture, and now TÔ Design? Is this a shift in your architectural work?
When I first opened the office it had almost no name. I saw it simply as a place where people worked together, and everyone in the office called it Tô. Now the office has an official name, which a friend gave it: Tôra Studio. In Japanese, tora means tiger. Tôra also carries the meaning of “forward, forward”.
Information about Tôra Studio seems rather mysterious on the internet.
I see this as a time when I am still practising, and I don’t know whether what I make is good or not. Being honest with myself, I don’t feel really ready; I am not confident enough and feel that what I did before wasn’t good enough. Luckily, friends and acquaintances help me and introduce clients. The office is small and takes on only two or three projects a year, moving along at its own pace.
When you design, do you apply painting? And how?
It is more accurate to say I use painting in design. Painting is when I speak my emotions through the effect a subject has on me, so that there is an exchange of feeling. Design is the same. Once there is emotion, I let it take some form within the design. That is my personal sense of it; there is no clear method.
I have been practising design seriously for only two or three years, quite a short time. The thing I am satisfied with and feel expresses it rightly is that lamp over there. I asked for the iron rod from a workshop, and the lamp was made without any brief. I used whatever was at hand, so it came about very naturally and spontaneously.
In each design project, I notice you often place a handmade object you made yourself.
Those things are not made by me alone; everyone in the office makes them together. Design depends a great deal on the client’s requirements and wishes, and I am mainly an adviser who offers solutions that suit them. I am only secondary. So showing too much of my ego isn’t necessary. I understand and respect them as individuals. As for the object I place in each project, I see it as something that represents me there, very small, but more present than invisible things like space… and it is also like a gift.
I like handmade things I make myself because then I can express my thinking, practise more and understand why this is so and why that is so. As a child, if I wanted toys like a bow and arrow, a stick game or a kite, I had to make them myself, so that habit of “making it with my own hands” seeped into me and is present in my life today.
On your drawing journey, who has influenced you most? Why?
At one point, after graduating and starting work, I was still sketching, but only innocently. Working in architecture at that time didn’t feel right for me, so I quit. The person who influenced me was Mrs Thuý, an older painter who inspired me to keep painting in watercolour. Every Sunday I went painting with her. She didn’t teach in any fixed or formal way; she helped awaken in me a clearer, sharper sense and feeling of the scene, to bring into my paintings.
Why do you love sketching? Besides watercolour and pencil, have you thought of using other media? Why?
I choose to record my emotions at that moment, in that space, as if keeping a diary. After watercolour, I drew in pastel. I feel those two media suit me. I also paint in oil, but perhaps at this point it doesn’t really suit me yet. Also, when sketching, watercolour dries very fast, which helps me emphasise the moment while drawing.
Most of your works seem to be landscape sketches. Do you sketch other subjects? How do you choose the places for your drawings?
It’s just my personal choice. I like something that interacts with me just enough. I feel it or it affects me, entirely through the senses, so I have no specific criteria. Besides sketches, I also paint self-portraits, but for now I want to keep the self-portraits to myself.
I understand that during your time in France you took part in many exhibitions showing your paintings. Did having solo exhibitions bring you many experiences? Tell us about the one that impressed you most.
Many experiences, and I cherish all of them. The one I remember most is my last exhibition in France. Someone gave me the key to the gallery so I could open it myself. It was raining that day, so I thought no one would come and took my time having breakfast, drinking coffee and strolling. When I arrived, I saw an elderly couple standing in the rain across the street. I looked at them and they looked at me. I thought they must be waiting for someone in the building next door. When the gallery door opened, they came over to greet me. They said they had come early, but for some reason the gallery was closed, and they didn’t know how to get in touch, so they had waited. And they lived very far away, 120 kilometres from my city. Those things are very precious to me; it was so great, and I don’t know how I came to receive it. Whenever I think back on it, the image of the old couple standing in the rain flashes through my mind as if it were only yesterday.
Why publish a book at this point? What do you hope to achieve by publishing it?
The book was finished in 2021. Hiếu always asked me: “What are you making this book for?” And when I held the manuscript in my hands, I wondered whether what was in it could help anyone. Personally, I wanted to keep that moment of mine. On the other hand, I thought that if I, before meeting Mrs Thuý, had held a book like this, I would have been very happy. It is like an encouragement, a word shared with people like me at that time, struggling and asking themselves whether what they draw is beautiful, whether it counts as painting.
Your thoughts on your drawing at present.
In the past I only learned to draw and practise technique; my skills were the main thing. Now I personally feel that more things pass through me, and the emotion I convey through my paintings is clearer. It’s as if the way I see everything around me runs through my mind with all my emotions and then becomes a painting. In the past I could only bring out a little, but now the flow of emotion in my paintings is growing wider. I no longer need a subject in front of me to spark that emotion.
Võ Trọng Hồng is a young architect who graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Hanoi University of Civil Engineering. After graduating in Vietnam, he went on to study architecture at the National School of Architecture of Grenoble, France.
For him, painting is a very simple pleasure. He has sketched since his student days in Hanoi. While studying in France, he had the chance to see French architecture with his own eyes, and sketching helped him keep the feelings of standing in front of those buildings.
After completing his master’s degree, he returned to Vietnam and founded an architecture and design office called Tôra Studio, while continuing his watercolour sketching.
Photography: Phương Mây
Interview: Phương Mây, Phạm Hà Thu
Location: Tôra Studio, Hanoi, Vietnam
