In our rapidly evolving digital world, marked by the urgency of climate change, how can architecture play a significant role in fostering cultural and environmental development in a city, bridging the valuable historical past with a sustainable future? How can architecture balance being both timely, responding to present-day necessities and influences, while also embodying timeless qualities that endure and remain relevant across generations?

This lecture will explore these questions through “Grayscale,” an experimental framework for atmospheric architecture, part of my master's thesis at Harvard University, completed with distinction in 2019. The design application proposes a new laboratory and cultural hub as an extension to the historical railway station in Dalat, a highland city in Vietnam known for its temperate climate, pine forests, and French colonial architecture. Dalat’s iconic fog, now threatened by climate change and deforestation, is central to the project. The project proposes an Architecture of Fog, a bridge between the scale of the body and the scale of the environment, amplifying and restoring the atmospheric quality of the city, both metaphorically and literally. How can architecture be like fog? How can architecture be both natural and artificial?