Hoa Sen University and experts from the University of Sydney discuss smart urban architecture

Building a smart city is a topic that many urban experts are interested in today. To gain a deeper understanding of this topic, Hoa Sen University (HSU) organizes a workshop “Smart urban architecture”. The show takes place on November 18, 2022.

Workshop with the participation of leading experts in the field of urban architecture. Especially with the presence of GS. Robyn Dowling – Dean of School of Architecture and Urban Planning – University of Sydney (Australia) – where leading architects have participated in the design and construction of the famous Opera House, the symbol of Australia. The seminar also had the presence of speaker – Mr. Jonathan TROUILLON – Director of Kobi Lighting Studio in Vietnam.

Education needs to take the lead to build a smart city

In recent years, Vietnam has been rapidly urbanizing the region. According to statistics of the Ministry of Construction, in the first 6 months of 2022, the national urbanization rate reached 41%, with 883 urban areas, an increase of 0.6% compared to 2021. To achieve the goal of becoming an industrial country by 2030, the urbanization rate of our country must reach 50-60%. That number proves the “golden time” of the construction industry. Statistics show that, after the Covid-19 pandemic, the architecture and construction industry need about 400,000-500,000 additional workers per year, but the current quality of human resources has not yet met the demand.

Speaking at the Conference, Dr. Phan Thi Vietnam – Vice President of Hoa Sen University said: “In order to contribute to the smart city development process, I think that education needs to take the lead to provide high-quality human resources with enough thinking, knowledge and skills in the 4.0 era. We can easily see that today’s large urban projects and projects are still “relying” on designers and architects from abroad. Therefore, how to make design and architecture human resources more vocal in large projects is a problem that training institutions need to solve. Including Interior Design of Hoa Sen University.”

Discussing the research and teaching of urban architecture, Prof. Robyn Dowling has an analysis of biographies of cities, challenges of smart cities, smart city governance… Professor. Robyn Dowling also compares smart cities between different countries such as India, Australia… to clearly see the architectural differences between countries. She believes that teaching about urban architecture needs to be methodical and constantly innovated: “Let’s start with education and awareness training. The designed training programs must create favorable conditions for learners’ interaction with partners and smart city projects; provides opportunities to develop networks and share knowledge for learners. Students must constantly learn from local and international smart location experts,” Prof. Robyn Dowling gives advice to students.

Lighting design is interested by many young people

Besides Prof. Robyn Dowling, the seminar also had the participation of speaker Jonathan TROUILLON with the topic that many young people in interior design and architecture are interested in today: “Smart Lighting in Architecture.

Mr. Jonathan analyzed the definition of smart lighting as a lighting system that integrates many technologies so that both indoor and outdoor lighting systems can operate on its own in certain conditions such as sensors, virtual assistant technology… The benefits of smart lighting such as: Saving energy, avoiding light pollution, improving people’s lives. However, sometimes it also causes negative effects on human health such as disrupting circadian rhythms, producing too much blue light, relying too much on technology, overexposure to radiation, etc.

With this topic, many students expressed their desire to pursue a career in lighting design or start-up business in lighting equipment. What young people are interested in is is this field really potential? Explaining this problem, Mr. Jonathan shared that there will be supply and demand, and you just need to optimize it with modern technologies as well as considering the cost to determine your target audience, this is a potential area.

The seminar “Smart urban architecture” has brought a lot of useful information not only to students but also to lecturers and those who are working in the field of architecture and urban construction. In particular, this is an opportunity for students of Interior Design of Hoa Sen University to have the opportunity to exchange and listen to the sharing of leading experts in the field of urban architecture, opening up many learning opportunities and job orientation for students. Since then, contributing to improving human resources in the field of interior design, architecture, promoting the construction and development of Ho Chi Minh City into a smart city.

With the goal of internationalizing the training program, HSU is constantly expanding exchanges and cooperation with international partners so that students can have access to advanced knowledge and educational methods in the world. The cooperation with a leading university in the world such as the University of Sydney at the Workshop “Smart urban architecture” is one of the activities for Interior Design students to better understand the profession they are studying, thereby grasping job opportunities and future career orientations for them. In addition to becoming an interior designer, graduates can take up positions such as architects, construction works, project managers, supervision consultants, experts in lighting, landscape, trading products related to architecture and interior…