How To Sneak A Mang Thít Kiln Into Manzi? | Talk with MMLab
07:30 PM, Fri 29 May 2026
Manzi art space
14 Phan Huy Ích, Ba Đình, Hà Nội
Language: Vietnamese
Registration link (limited to 40 people)
From the organizer:
May at Manzi, a 14-metre-tall, 10-metre-wide brick kiln from Mang Thít has somehow migrated into the exhibition space. Behind that mad journey are plenty of stories still untold.
Join us for a conversation with two co-founders of MM Lab and the team members who took on the challenge of “squeezing a kiln” into Manzi.
They’ll talk about the initial concept emerging from their Mang Thít research project—the starting point of this exhibition—and how the whole team fumbled, stumbled, and adjusted their way between the imagination and reality to reach what you’ve seen in the room.
Nguyễn Hà is an architect, founder of arb architects Vietnam, and co-founder of MM Lab. Before establishing arb architects in Vietnam in 2009, she studied and began her architectural practice at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Hà’s practice is concerned with the multidimensional relationships between architecture, local culture, making, traditional craftsmanship, materials, and the sacred, where architecture is understood as a living entity carrying the belief systems of its territory. In 2024, Nguyễn Hà received the Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture. In 2025, Nguyễn Hà and arb architects received the AR Emerging Awards, recognising the trajectory of a globally promising architectural practice.
Nguyễn Lê Minh Nhựt is an architect, co-founder and Research Director of MM Lab, co-founder of Gian Giữa, and a lecturer at Hanoi Architectural University. He graduated with a Master of Architecture (ARB/RIBA Part 2) from The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and has worked at several architectural practices in Vietnam and internationally. His architectural practice is drawn toward the tantalizing: things that are beautiful and always within reach, yet can never be fully grasped.
MM Lab is a research laboratory founded by Nguyễn Hà, Kim Hojung, Nguyễn Thu Trang Bio, and Nguyễn Lê Minh Nhựt. It operates in close relation to architectural practice and making through arb architects and Beaulo Design.
The research project on the Mang Thít brick kilns, supported by the Graham Foundation, and Situated Regionalism, developed within the Experimental Fellowship with Bauhaus Earth, are two examples of MM Lab’s approach: one that emphasises field observation, experimentation, archiving, and multidisciplinary exchange. For MM Lab, architecture is not a stable definition, but something that constantly needs to be rethought.
How To Sneak A Mang Thít Kiln Into Manzi? is part of the ongoing research project The Dichotomy of Heritage and Industrialization in Mang Thít’s Sustainable Development, funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in 2025, with Nguyễn Hà and Kim Hojung as grantees.
*The research project has been carried out by MM Lab since August 2025:
Research Director: Nguyễn Lê Minh Nhựt
Core team: Nguyễn Hà, Kim Hojung, Trang Bio, Vũ Tuấn Anh, Lê Quang Trường Giang, Nguyễn Phương Mai, Tống Khánh Linh, Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hà, Lê Thu Thủy
Collaborators: Ylan Vo, Giuseppe De Francesco, Trương Uyên Ly, University of Architecture Ho Chi Minh City
Follow updates on event’s page.
