An's House / G+ Architects

Curated by Paula Pintos

Architects: G+ Architects
Area: 2000 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs:Quang Trần
Manufacturers: Acor, Anfaco Lighting, Dong Nai, Spec, Toto, Vicem
Lead Architects: Đoàn Bằng Giang, Hoàng Duy, Nguyện Minh Quân, Nguyễn Vũ Hải, Nguyễn Hương, Nguyễn Phương Khánh

Text description provided by the architects. The house is located at the border between Cu Chi District, Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh Province - rural areas are changing with new forms of cultivation and the increasing appearance of high technology farms. The region is experiencing rapid population growth, partly driven by urban residents wishing to explore rural life and run away from busy cities. Consequently, the emergence of more and more new housing models is gradually breaking the traditional form of housing which is very harmonious with nature and long associated with local people. The model of rural houses in the South of Vietnam is clustered like an oasis, surrounded by gardens with coconut trees, areca trees and furthermore, vast rice fields are gradually being lost.

An’s House is designed for a family of 3 generations, with the desire of the son to preserve and inherit the 30 year-old-house of ancestors more where grandparents, parents, and grandchildren gather over the weekends.

An's House's space is developed according to the traditional house layout with the worshiping house (reconstructed from the old house born in the 1980s) and a living house connected by a corridor and separated by a lake. The house is like an oasis in the 2000-square-meter, actively opening and closing to get wind from the outside and completely open inward with the lake at the center.

The kitchen and dining room are the transition areas between the worshiping area and the living area. Corridors and living rooms are open spaces inside, connecting the bedrooms of grandparents, parents, and grandchildren. Bedrooms still retain the necessary privacy and link with common spaces such as corridors, lakes, courtyards, dining room, kitchen, creating a close communication space between members.

Most of the indoor wooden furniture is more than half a century old, leveraging from old furniture transferred over generations and preserved as household treasures. The house is surrounded by a seasonally intensive rice field and some melon land. A peaceful place as expected of the owner.