Hoang Thuc Hao and colleagues established 1+1>2 Architects firm in 2003 with a motto: Architecture committed to people, to ecological and cultural diversity. Throughout 20 years of practice, working in both urban and rural contexts, from small projects with low budget to large projects in urban settings, including many volunteer projects. In rural areas, we focus on small school projects: 52 school sites have been completed and many are continuing to be built in remote areas. Besides, there are community house projects such as Suoi Re community house, Nam Dam, Cam Thanh... and houses for the impoverished, supporting ethnic minorities to combine service, social functions and economy to improve their living conditions. In urban areas, we persuade and find solutions for investors to create more humane buildings, to preserve and acculturate the core cultural architectural genes of the nation in such projects: Hanging village, Jackfruit village, Earth village, Workers village and Zen village...

1+1>2 is a creative method of integrating practice and research. It is a continuous interaction between academia and folk wisdom, in which each element has the ability to self-improve, approaching “1” while always ready to interact with another “1” to create a surplus “1+1>2”. Initial activities are volunteer and community projects carried out by a small group of teachers, architects, students, and the locals, with a spirit of spontaneous, creative, guerrilla and uncompromising, “anything can be architecture”. Find out more: http://112.com.vn/en/