Our Story

Meo Atelier designs elegant, calm, and yet playful architecture. Based in Wellington since 2015 and led by Dr Minh Nguyen, our studio’s portfolio spans many sectors, but primarily focuses on small cultural buildings and housing.

At Meo Atelier, we believe that good architecture does not only fulfill clients’ briefs, but it has the power to culture the silence and inner calm we need in our society today. In addition, we also try to create buildings that evoke, inspire, and capture the imagination through thoughtful configuration of space, materials, and light.

Dr Minh Nguyen

Dr. Minh Nguyen studied architecture at Bauhaus University Weimar, the birthplace of modern architecture, and VTECH, Virginia. He spent 10 years of his young age studying, working, and traveling in Europe, the United States, and Asia, before reallocating to New Zealand in 2011. 

A few months before flying to New Zealand, I was still the lead architect in a large international architecture company, designing two apartment towers in Hanoi. 

Being seen as a successful young architect, but from deep inside, I was not happy if my buildings simply try to please the eyes of the users and meet investors’ profit expectations. I wanted to explore the depth of architecture, the emotional dimension of space that could transform and empower individuals and our communities.

This underlying question has set the path for the architecture.  After his PhD study under Professor Diane Brand, Dr Minh Nguyen has worked as a principal academic in New Zealand, teaching architecture design and technology.

He enjoys teaching and research but is always ready for projects and clients who share parallel values and aspirations.