Our final company tour of the week was at GreenViet, company that specializes in sustainability in the development of infrastructure. They’re a recently founded company, but have done well in the job market, because of their innovative ideas. They take into account social norms within their architectural designs. During the presentation, Mr. Quang mentioned that they took on an apartment building design, but to make it more sustainable, they incorporated the fact that Vietnamese people always keep their windows open and turn off the AC. So, they made sure that the apartment building was facing the wind, so that the wind could blow into the apartments, making them cooler.

One thing I noticed was that a good portion of GreenViet’s clients were international. I think this company still has to make a name for themselves, because it is very new still, and hasn’t established themselves fully yet. However, I do think that this company is on the right track for becoming a name in Vietnam, or even internationally, because their methods are very creative and there’s an increasing interest in creating infrastructure that is less harmful for the environment.

On a side note, the location of the building where GreenViet is located was beautiful. It had grass instead of pavement, which is better for the environment, and was surrounded by lots of greenery. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of the place, but trust me, it was gorgeous.

During our culture class, we were given clothes that are traditionally worn over the head in various ways. It was cool to see why they tied them the specific way, because they intentionally left parts of the cloth hanging so that they could wipe the sweat off with the excess cloth. After language and culture class, we went on a waterbus tour to see the city. It was nice to see everything from a different perspective. However, it was so hot on the boat, because the metal amplified the heat.

This past week has been so fun and I can’t wait for the upcoming week and the activities, such as boating on the Mekong Delta, visiting a temple, and of course going shopping.