PHAM UYEN NHI NGUYEN

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My name is Nguyen Pham Uyen Nhi, a Vietnamese Interior Architecture student at Swinburne University of Technology. My design approach focuses on creating warm, human-centred spaces that support community wellbeing, emotional connection, and inclusive engagement. I am particularly interested in how colour, form, and materiality can influence behaviour and atmosphere, shaping environments that feel welcoming and meaningful.

I also value designs that carry a personal imprint — exploring how each individual’s story, culture, and identity can shape authentic and emotionally resonant spatial experiences.

My Capstone project, the Community Art Center in North Richmond, explores architecture as a social connector, using a soft pink palette, gentle curves, and light-filled spaces to encourage creativity and belonging within a diverse urban community.

Lantern of Community – Exterior Facade

The soft pink facade redefines the colour as a symbol of empathy and openness. Designed as a welcoming gateway for North Richmond, the building blends gentle curves, greenery, and light to create a warm civic presence.. Designed as an inclusive hub for art, learning, and wellbeing, the centre features a light-filled atrium, flexible studios, and community spaces that encourage collaboration and meaningful social interaction.

Vaulted Hallway – Spatial Transition

A series of pink vaulted arches creates a calming, immersive circulation space. Soft light, curved surfaces, and tactile materiality guide visitors toward the central atrium, enhancing spatial warmth and connection.

Central Atrium & Staircase

The atrium forms the heart of the Community Art Center, anchored by a sculptural staircase that encourages movement, gathering, and visual connection across levels. Natural light enhances the softness of the interior palette.

Gallery Zone – Artists’ Exhibition Space

A curated gallery space designed to showcase artists’ works. Soft lighting and sculptural display panels create a calm, focused atmosphere that highlights each artwork while guiding visitors through an intimate, contemplative viewing experience.

Performance Hall – Community Gathering Space

A flexible hall designed for music, talks, and community events. Soft neutral tones, generous daylight, and comfortable seating create an inclusive environment that supports creativity and shared cultural experiences.

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.