Design Mission - The project meets different contexts of use - The project is in a new urban area in Ngu Hanh Son district, Da Nang City, with only 10 minutes to move to the downtown - a convenient location for the business of tourist accommodation business. The design requirement is that a building can be used as both a vacation home and a rental house. A large villa on a 15mx18m plot of land, split into two smaller villas with full functions and separate transport systems, so that it can be used flexibly in many ways: for a partial or full rental, or combined living and renting, or use it as a whole vacation house. The house is designed with 7 bedrooms, 2 living rooms and kitchens, 2 saltwater swimming pools with separate gardens, and a deck for sightseeing the Hàn River.
Incorporate local values into the design - The owner is a big fan of European-style luxurious modern architecture. However, the design team tried to convince to orient the project to an architectural style with more regional characteristics. That has created a challenge in finding the combination and interference to balance the functional and cultural factors of the building and is the highlight among many vacation houses built in Da Nang. The central region of Vietnam is famous for its tradition of skilled craftsmen, especially in the carpentry industry. Da Nang has famous construction materials factories: cement bricks, handmade ceramic bricks, and diverse natural stones used in construction and handicraft production.
Adapting to the local climate - Da Nang has two distinct seasons: wet and dry season. The hot climate in the summer, the influence of the hot and dry westerly wind, and frequent storms in the last months of the year are problems that every project must pay attention to solve. The building has a west-facing facade and thanks to the setback, it has four open sides, which is both an advantage to solving ventilation and a challenge in arranging open spaces for the inner living spaces.
Design Solutions:
- A cubic solution that balances the openings and closings to create a 2 – 1 building - The building is divided into 2 units, corresponding to 2 small villas, the setbacks around the building and the gap between the two units are designed so that each villa has its garden while still ensuring privacy.
- Courtyard, veranda, buffer spaces - To solve the problem of heat radiation, the hot and dry westerly wind, and limit rain in the wet season, the design creates many buffer spaces along with large openings, bringing in the moisture of the water surface, green patches, the shade of eaves and louvers. Exterior openings are reduced and focused on inward openings to create climate and landscape oases, providing a relaxed atmosphere.
- Using local materials and traditional architectural details - In terms of shape and functional layout, the project is oriented towards a modern image and focuses on comfort. When entering the detailed design stage, the design team wanted to find a more indigenous breath by studying materials and interior details. Traditional materials such as natural stone, wood, terrazzo, cement tile, and handmade ceramic tile are selected from local sources and used in a new way, streamlined, and minimalistic form; In it, the random details make the highlight of the space.
The project is a study of the ability to combine contemporary architecture and nostalgic features of traditional materials and details; so that each space can keep in it the stories of the past, the culture, and the land where the work was built.
