Photographer: Quang Dam | ArchDaily

Vesp House / Story Architecture

Miwa Negoro — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:00:00 +0000

The homeowner is a young man, but has a great love for old Vespas. He and his friends often travel on old Vespas throughout the provinces and cities of Vietnam. But then the time came for him to build a house and get married. He confided to the architect that he probably won't travel much anymore, and he will spend more time in the house. He also wants to build a house not only for him and his wife to live in, but also for his parents, grandmother, and younger sister to live with. The idea started from the homeowner's bedroom.

Beyond Circulation: Stair Solutions for Small-Footprint Living in Asia

Jonathan Yeung — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 07:30:00 +0000

In many high-density cities across Asia, the staircase is often treated as a necessary evil. Whether in apartment buildings, private homes, or retail interiors, it is frequently hidden, tucked away, or pushed to the margins—an element to be minimized so more area can be given to "usable" space. Yet as density intensifies and square footage becomes increasingly scarce, architects and designers are forced to rethink this vertical puzzle.

Mobility Justice: Urban Equity in an Era of Innovation

Olivia Poston — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Every city contains two transportation systems. One is the visible network of roads, rail lines, sidewalks, and bus routes mapped in planning documents. The other is the invisible geography of privilege and exclusion embedded within it: the neighborhoods that received highways instead of parks, the communities whose bus routes were cut, the sidewalks that abruptly end at the edge of a district. For many years, built-environment professionals have treated infrastructure as a technical challenge. Mobility justice insists it is, fundamentally, a political one.

The Gap House / Atelier TAs

Miwa Negoro — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The project is situated on a 5×20 meter plot at the intersection of two narrow alleys—an uncommon condition within the typical urban tube-house fabric. The advantage of having two open façades allows for effective use of natural light and ventilation, while simultaneously requiring careful control of sightlines to ensure privacy. In an increasingly dense urban context, where land becomes scarce and buildings press tightly against one another, daily life is often compressed within enclosed volumes. The house is therefore not merely a shelter, but a space that creates openings for people to truly breathe. From this perspective, the "void" became the central concept shaping The Gap House.

Hospitality as Heritage Catalyst: 5 Adaptive Reuse Strategies Across Diverse Latitudes

Moises Carrasco — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Hospitality-driven programs, specifically coffee shops and social hubs, are partly defined by their role as "third places": social anchors that bridge the gap between private and public life. Unlike residential or commercial office programs that require rigid partitioning for privacy and utility, they rely on expansive, open-plan environments. This allows for an architectural strategy of minimal intervention, allowing the structural envelope to remain intact. By avoiding the subdivision of space, architects maintain uninterrupted sightlines to original masonry, timber frames, or decorative ceilings, ensuring the building's historical narrative remains the protagonist. Simultaneously, the commercial activity provides the necessary maintenance and public engagement to ensure the site's continued existence.

Everyday Heritage: 10 Vietnamese Coffee Shops Reviving Small-Scale Traditional Buildings

Hana Abdel — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 07:30:00 +0000

To fully know a city's architectural heritage, one must look beyond its designated sites and iconic buildings. For many, understanding a city's urban fabric and what makes it tick also means discovering the smaller-scale, locally appreciated, conserved buildings and popular gathering spaces. This is especially true when considering bustling Vietnamese cities, with their peculiar architectural characteristics, which can only be appreciated when learning about their many inspirations and historic layers, combining traditional Vietnamese motifs, modernism, local materiality, and climatic design solutions, but mostly by learning about the site constraints that are addressed through the implementation of the narrow tube houses and low-rise buildings.

Vietnam’s Tube Houses: Architectural Strategies Under 100 m²

Moises Carrasco — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In Vietnam, the tube house has almost become a vernacular form in densely populated cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This typology originated from ancient façade taxes and as a strategic response to urban land scarcity and optimization of street frontage for commerce. Their traditional structure typically relies on the front façade for daylight and ventilation. People living there often face the challenge of designing in a space defined by the deep plots, limited street frontage, and close neighboring buildings, restricting natural light and airflow. To counter this fundamental lack of perimeter exposure, Vietnamese architects usually employ several strategies oriented towards internal environmental manipulation. This curated collection explores tube houses under 100 m2, where their small size increased the need for absolute spatial economy and the verticalization of function, which directly influenced design decisions across all projects.

A.K Home / PAU Architects

Miwa Negoro — Sat, 22 Nov 2025 21:00:00 +0000

A.K House is a compact townhouse project located in a quiet residential neighborhood with lush greenery. Situated on a modest 70m² plot with an angled layout deviating from the main street, the design challenge was to optimize the living space under spatial constraints — ensuring privacy while maximizing access to natural light and ventilation.

Design Ethos of Subtraction and Addition: 10 Adaptive Reuse Projects for Commercial and Social Spaces in Asia

Miwa Negoro — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 07:30:00 +0000

While adaptive reuse has been increasingly acknowledged as a vital architectural strategy worldwide, its discourse and implementation in Asia are still expanding—driven by growing ecological awareness and a shifting understanding of architectural knowledge. Rather than accelerating a developmentalist model centered on demolition and new construction, architects today are confronted with a different approach to the built environment: treating the existing structure as a resource—an archive of materials, spatial organizations, and informal histories.

Aunt Four’s House / AHA Architects

Miwa Negoro — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 02:00:00 +0000

The house is a three-generation family residence located in the rural landscape of Long An, Vietnam. Positioned along a busy national highway, the site presented two significant challenges: traffic noise and fine dust from constant vehicle flow. The design response was to create a layered system of green buffers that both protect the living environment and evoke the spirit of the traditional Southern Vietnamese garden house.

Gia Dinh House / G+architects

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Context / Site – The project is located in a long-established residential area that once served as the center of Gia Dinh Province, now Gia Dinh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City. The house sits on a distinctive plot with a chamfered frontage along the street axis.

Tradition in Clay: Vietnam's Architectural Exploration with Traditional Tiles

Moises Carrasco — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Red clay roof tiles appear in many architectural traditions around the world, despite the cultures being geographically or historically distant. However, this isn't necessarily surprising. Clay is an abundant and accessible building material worldwide, with some studies and other sources suggesting it comprises approximately 10-13% of the Earth's soils. Red tiles, in particular, are often a product of the local soil's mineral content and the firing process. Their widespread use across unrelated regions is less about shared cultural influence and more about material logic: clay is cheap, durable, and easy to work with using simple tools and techniques. In Vietnam, for example, there is a unique and visible tradition of clay tile use that dates back centuries. Regions like Vinh Long, nicknamed the "kingdom of red ceramics", have an abundance of this material, supporting a long history of tile-making. In some parts of Vietnam, these tiles are known as Yin-Yang tiles, due to the concave and convex shape in which they are formed during production.

Cashew Garden House / G+ Architects

Miwa Negoro — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Nha Vuon Dieu is a private retreat and small-scale homestay located at the edge of Nam Cat Tien National Park in southern Vietnam. The 1000 m² plot contained 26 mature cashew trees before construction began. From the start, the key requirement was clear: preserve every tree, avoid disturbing root systems, and build with minimal impact on the existing landscape.

O Plant-based Thao Dien Cafe / xưởng xép

Miwa Negoro — Thu, 22 May 2025 19:00:00 +0000

In architecture, we are often accustomed to adding – a new structure emerging as a mark of human presence imprinted on nature. However, for this project, we chose a different approach: instead of adding, we deliberately subtracted artificial interventions.

Dragonfly Retreat & Cafe / Country House. Architecture

Miwa Negoro — Thu, 08 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dragonfly Retreat & Cafe was transformed from an abandoned mushroom-growing warehouse—everything was old, worn, and forgotten by time. Yet, that very sense of desolation was what intrigued me. The entire southern face of the building opens toward a pristine hill, and just beyond it, the sea stretches wide and free. It felt like the perfect setting to create a peaceful place of retreat—where one could simply sit still and breathe deeply.

Casa Blanca Garden / H2

Miwa Negoro — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 01:00:00 +0000

A Tranquil Mekong Garden House: A Haven Amidst Nature – Nestled in the serene landscape of Bến Tre, Casa Blanca Garden is a red-tiled roof house that gently blends into the lush canopy of surrounding trees. More than just a home, it is a peaceful retreat where one can embrace a slow-paced life, stay connected with nature, and nurture children in a fresh, loving environment.

Interior Courtyards: An Effective Strategy to Improve Space Quality in 15 Residential Projects

Paula Pintos — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 07:30:00 +0000

There are many advantages to incorporating interior courtyards in residential projects, both in urban contexts and in more natural surroundings. In both cases, they are a key element in improving the quality of the home's interior space in various ways. Whether in the form of a central cloister, side courtyards, or through perforated slabs and the addition of skylights, these spaces play a vital role in creating a harmonious living environment, offering benefits ranging from the regulation of interior temperature to enhancing social interactions and fostering a close connection with nature.

Tan Coffee / Son Studio

Miwa Negoro — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 02:00:00 +0000

From the initial idea of an abandoned factory, we dissembled the old structure and replaced it with a steel and concrete one, except for the front house whose concrete ceiling and old walls were left intact. The tin roof of the middle house was raised to give the feeling of "a factory". Big concrete pillars are used to divide up the space and big windows are to allow light and wind in. An indoor garden helps ease the heavy visual of concrete and steel.