Long Huynh

Co-founder and managing director of Chuon Chuon Kim Kindergarten

- Patrick Kasingsing and Lawrence Carlos

After being shown around two Choun Choun Kim projects in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by KIENTRUC O principal Dam Vu last March 2018, we interviewed Long Huynh, the owner of this progressive school brand. Formerly an event manager, but still runs a coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City among other commercial ventures, Huynh sat with us to discuss his holistic philosophy about education and creating a new paradigm for learning in Vietnam.

So how did you meet Dam Vu, principal of KIENTRUC O, and what made you decide to get him to design the kindergarten?

Actually, Vu and his partner are my wife’s friend. His wife and my wife were in class together at university, and we hung out together in a group of friends before we worked together. I thought about the combination between art and architecture, and education—a concept for what we would like to do. From our point of view, the architecture of a place is also a part of education. We wanted kids from an early age inhabiting a unique environment, and we think that this can develop the kids’ artistic taste in the future. Currently, what schools present to kids will create bad taste with a lot of colors with no rules or directions.

I also have some friends from the Philippines. Sometimes I say, “Hey! I just feel like you all are artists—you can sing, you can draw, you involve art in your daily lives!” People need these activities—a good hobby will make a good life too.