My PhD research is practice based with Rmit University, Melbourne. It is a study on the vernacular architecture of the small and narrow alleys of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. I have been collecting pictures of the small altars that inhabitants of those alleys place outside their houses. Every spirit, god and ghost that people pray to has its own space in this city. Home altars in Vietnam vary from house to house; some are very well looked after and detailed, others are abandoned and rusty with old burned incense left to erode. The composition and colours of each piece works as an architectonic space of it own which depicts characteristics and personality traits of the house owner. Observing these altars every month is a timeline of desires and hopes manifested through their offerings: fruit, eggs, flowers or tea. The arrangement of these offerings form a beautiful and symbolic distribution that expresses meaning and emotion through line, shape and colour. There are certain implicit rules that govern their form, sometimes linked to the aesthetic of the house they belong to. Alleys in Ho Chi Minh City are characteristic for their narrowness and are known as Hẻms. This tightness offers a sequenced viewing of the altars which specially come to life during Vietnamese Lunar New Year holidays (Tết) displaying a reel of sacred "still lifes" that reminds our spiritual connection that transcends barriers of language and culture.