Breathing House
Breathing House
Status:
02/2019
Program:
Private House
Location:
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Site are:
69.5m2
GFA:
343m2
Principal Architect:
Vo Trong Nghia, Kosuke Nishijima
Design team:
So Adachi
Contractor:
Wind and Water house Joint Stock Company
Client:
Indivisual
Photographers:
Hiroyuki Oki
The Breathing house is for a single family, located in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. The plot is 3.9m wide and 17.8m deep, only accessible by a tiny alley with crowded surroundings. Within this extremely high-dense neighborhood, we aimed to design a house that introduces an external environment while ensuring privacy.
Due to the circumstances of site, the opening of the building was physically constrained to the front, top and back of the house. In order to adjust the distance between neighbouring buildings while maximizing the opening area, we wrapped the aforementioned three surfaces of the building with a “green veil”, which is made of creeper plants that grow on a steel mesh. This soft layer, as an environmental diffuser, filters direct sunlight and prevents the interior space overexposure to the outside, without the feeling of isolation. It is composed of planter boxes at each floor slab, with modularized galvanized steel elements attached to it. This structure provides a green view throughout the house, which also protects the residents the urban crime.
Inside the “green veil”, the building consists of 5 tower-like volumes that are staggered and connected to each other, arranged in between the two boundary walls. The external spaces created by the staggered arrangement of the volumes, which we call “Micro voids”, play a role in providing myriad indirect lighting and ventilation routes throughout the building. In the narrow and deep plot shuttered by neighbors on both sides, it is more environmentally effective to promote ventilation for each corner of the house, by multiple “micro voids”, rather than having a singular large courtyard. The “micro voids” have openings on each of the floors, through which the residents have a more longitudinal and diagonal see-through view everywhere, looking into the green and other spaces. The staircase is also designed as one of the micro voids with top light and openings facing the rooms. The porous composition of the building reduces the use of air conditioning to enhance natural ventilation, creating both spatial and visual connection and depth in the house.
The roof terrace is covered by the “green veil”, becoming a space full of greenery which is rare in the crowded city area. The significance of the project is that it creates a green space, in the heart of a growing mega city. We hope the essence of this design would give positive influence to the cities in Vietnam, which is losing its green spaces at an alarming rate.
Dự án khác
05/2021 Ben Tre Buddhist Temple & Ancestral Hall 05/2021
10/2020 Bat Trang House 10/2020
02/2019 Breathing House 02/2019
12/2018 Stepping Park House 12/2018
09/2017 Stacked Planters House 09/2017
09/2017 Dong Anh House 09/2017
04/2014 House for trees 04/2014
02/2014 Dinh Liet House (Green Renovation) 02/2014
06/2013 Binh Thanh House 06/2013
02/2013 Green Renovation 02/2013
02/2011 Stacking Green 02/2011
In progress Diamond Lotus In progress
Awards
Green Good Design Awards/ Winner/ Phan Ke Binh House