NOTES is an independent archive of architecture and design. It started in Vietnam in 2013 as a record of buildings worth remembering. Today it is a place where architects, designers and photographers share their work with readers who take the time to look.
A slow page
We publish few projects and show each one in full: photographs, drawings, credits and a short text on the site, the idea, the spaces and the materials. There are no pop-ups, no autoplay and no endless feed. Projects stay where they are, sorted by place, type and material, so they can be found again years later.
Readers first
Every editorial decision starts with one question: is this useful to someone who studies, designs or builds? We look for work that answers its site and climate, uses materials honestly and solves ordinary problems with care. A small house in the Mekong Delta can matter as much as a theatre in a large city.
An archive for study
NOTES is building a database of contemporary architecture. Each project is filed with its place, type, materials, drawings and credits, so it can be compared with other work and found again long after it was built. A student might follow one material across a dozen countries, while a researcher looks at how houses in a single climate have changed over ten years. We want this record to be read and argued with by architects of several generations, wherever they work.
What we look for
NOTES publishes work from anywhere in the world. We give priority to architecture that lasts and serves people: sustainable buildings, community architecture, and projects that reuse what already exists, whether an old structure or salvaged material. We are drawn to work rooted in culture and heritage, and to buildings that put the communities who use them at the centre.
If your community is looking after an old house, a village, a craft or a stretch of landscape, we would like to hear from you. You do not need to be an architect, and the work does not need to be new. Send us photographs and a few lines on what you are keeping and why, through the submission page.
Contact
To send a project, please use the submission page. For anything else, write to mail@notes.vn or use the form below.