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Architects: Aaaaaa, Nhabe Scholae
- Area: 120 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Hiroyuki Oki
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Lead Architects: Cuong Nguyen (nhabe scholae), Triet Le, Quy Nguyen, Nhung Ho, Trang Truong, Thuy Nguyen
Text description provided by the architects. The house is for a family of four, parents, and kids. They are very active in play activities and evidently possess a large collection of stuff collected over the years. The brief calls for a renovation of an existing house, with a strong focus on living spaces, ie, the ground and mezzanine levels.
Upon visiting the site, we have found a spatial condition that is not so commonly found in tube houses in Ho Chi Minh city. That is the presence of columns to regulate spaces and circulation. This was an opportunity for us to utilize such a condition and integrate it into the overall living experiences.
Since the house only has a front facade, we think it is important to visually organize all the space toward the front. The garden acts as a connection node to nature, follows by communal space such as dining and kitchen. All supporting spaces are pushed over to the back. They are connected to a secondary garden, which is smaller and exists to facilitate cross ventilation.
To highlight the rare spatial condition said above, all the columns and the mezzanine floor plate are visually separated to suggest a sense of floatiness, and direct one’s direction of views toward the central garden. Hence the bright green paint character, together with other playful colors for the fit-out furniture, shelving system, and natural material, altogether enlivens the space further.
On a deeper level, the house and its living spaces are vessels that house and shelter the inhabitants from the tumultuous nature of the city, and gradually remove them from their daily external life. Each item placed in spaces, with its dedicated invisible boundary, enough to be a smaller version of a “shelter”, gradually shreds off a small aspect of the disorientation one has picked up from outside and replaces them with the comfort of a home. The house does not offer or take anything, it does not negotiate and bargain. It is just a place just to be, and nothing else.
