This article by Andrew Bibby, in a slightly different form, was first published in the Financial Times, 2003
Trieu Nguyen used to teach architecture to university students in Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon), Vietnam. These days his workplace is a modern office block near the city’s airport and his days are typically spent checking technical drawings for, say, a new secondary school in the Home Counties or a student accommodation block in south London.
Trieu Nguyen is Technical and Compliance Manager with Atlas Industries, a young company which is intent on persuading …