Vo Trong Nghia Architects + ICADA A House in Nha Trang

Nha Trang, Vietnam is a famous beach resort with an ideal temperate climate. In this location surrounded by mountains and overlooking the ocean, the roof of the house designed by Vo Trong Nghia Architects and ICADA with its steps and bright green plants becomes a roof landscape establishing a direct relationship with the shape of the mountains.

The house lives in symbiosis with its green surroundings: the garden around it enters powerfully into the interior of the home through floor to ceiling windows, the three inner courtyards maximise the beneficial effects of natural lighting and ventilation, and the roof garden transforms a "limitation" imposed by city regulations requiring sloped roofs to be 50% covered with grey tiles into a strong point of the building’s design. To comply with the regulations, the architects designed a single continuous roof which appears to be divided thanks to a series of parallel strips alternating greenery with pavement.
The volume of the home is therefore characterised by this stepped roof corresponding to a different functional organisation on the inside of the building: a distinction determined by the need to differentiate the heights of the ceilings. The paved parts correspond to the bedrooms and the dining area where the ceilings are higher over. The green strips correspond to the passageways, bathrooms and other utility areas, which have lower ceilings, over which are deep plant pots containing the roof garden’s plants.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Principal Architects: Vo Trong Nghia + Masaaki Iwamoto
Office Credit: Vo Trong Nghia Architects http://votrongnghia.com + ICADA http://icada.asia/wp/
Location: Nha Trang, Vietnam
Photograph: Hiroyuki Oki

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