Miniature Mekong Delta Houses: A New Trade for a Young Couple in Ca Mau
I love the story of Trần Vũ Trường (31) and Võ Thị Nha (28), who live in Nguyễn Việt Khái commune in Cà Mau province. The couple build miniature houses of the Mekong Delta from old photos or from their customers' memories.
In 2022, while working as factory workers in Đồng Nai, Trường saw miniature houses on social media and tried to make one himself, using cardboard, toothpicks and glue right in his rented room. He had once been in charge of print colours at a packaging company, so he was quite good at mixing paint. After about six months of teaching himself, he started taking orders. In the middle of 2025 the two of them quit their jobs, went home and set up a small workshop next to the house, so they could be close to their parents and children.
The models are made entirely by hand from wooden sticks, bamboo chopsticks, cardboard, Formex board and even beer cans. Popular sizes are 40x50 cm, 60x60 cm and 80x80 cm, priced from a few hundred thousand dong up to more than 40 million dong. A simple house takes about one or two weeks, while a complicated structure can take several months.
One order moved me deeply: a customer in Đồng Tháp wanted to give his grandfather a model of the thatched house where his great-grandfather had once lived, but he had only one blurry photo. Trường and the customer talked for two months, adjusting every pillar and every leaf of the roof. The workshop now brings in about 30 to 40 million dong a month. To me, these tiny houses keep alive a part of memory that no longer exists in real life.
Source: VnExpress
In 2022, while working as factory workers in Đồng Nai, Trường saw miniature houses on social media and tried to make one himself, using cardboard, toothpicks and glue right in his rented room. He had once been in charge of print colours at a packaging company, so he was quite good at mixing paint. After about six months of teaching himself, he started taking orders. In the middle of 2025 the two of them quit their jobs, went home and set up a small workshop next to the house, so they could be close to their parents and children.
The models are made entirely by hand from wooden sticks, bamboo chopsticks, cardboard, Formex board and even beer cans. Popular sizes are 40x50 cm, 60x60 cm and 80x80 cm, priced from a few hundred thousand dong up to more than 40 million dong. A simple house takes about one or two weeks, while a complicated structure can take several months.
One order moved me deeply: a customer in Đồng Tháp wanted to give his grandfather a model of the thatched house where his great-grandfather had once lived, but he had only one blurry photo. Trường and the customer talked for two months, adjusting every pillar and every leaf of the roof. The workshop now brings in about 30 to 40 million dong a month. To me, these tiny houses keep alive a part of memory that no longer exists in real life.
Source: VnExpress
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