The lack of green spaces and parks has become a common lament amongst most city dwellers in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. The area of trees per capita (square metre per person) is lower in the country’s largest city—home to more than 8 million people—than in its capital, and even lower when compared to […]
Multi-functional basics: Binh Thuan House by MIA Design Studio
This home for a young family of four exemplifies how “basic is best”, focusing on necessities when faced with constraints. Designed with a limited budget, and constructed remotely during the pandemic with local builders, the architects concentrated on key elements of residential buildings. “The basics are the organisation of daylight, natural ventilation, and creating functional […]
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Status Quo: Tropical Chalet & The Terrace Mansion
It is already common for the single-house residential prototype to be sensitive to local climate and site in their designs, deploying suitably eco-friendly strategies that make sense to do so. For instance, the Tropical Chalet in Da Nang, Vietnam, is defined by its porous design—in form, massing and use of local bricks—that brings in the […]
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Na Khoang School: Built by and for the community
In line with our ongoing design competition FuturArc Prize (FAP) 2023: Cross-Generational Architecture, we are highlighting projects along the theme for your inspiration. Click here to learn more about the brief! In rural areas, it is important to provide safe spaces for children to receive education—including fulfilling children’s need for play and interaction, be it […]
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Sân Chung: From Industry to Community | FAP 2022 Merit
Sân Chung is a noun phrase that refers to a common space shared by a residential community of a surrounding area. The premise of the team’s proposal is to bring this idea to life by leveraging post-industrial historical assets to restore and redesign them as community and cultural spaces. This will serve to address the […]
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Low Garden: Greening Below Ground | FAP 2022 Merit
Urbanisation has led to an increasing loss of green areas in Hanoi. This has been exacerbated by traffic congestion and air pollution. And a spike in the number of residents in the city means that the demand for civic and community spaces is increasing too. The team proposed to transform abandoned pedestrian tunnel spaces, which […]
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Touch of Change: Writing New Memories Into Saigon’s ‘Frozen’ Peninsula | FAP 2022 Merit
The neighbourhood in Thanh Da peninsula has been described as being ‘frozen in time’. It is one of the oldest residential areas in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), bordered on all sides by the Saigon River and a canal, connected to the mainland by an access road. Due to a long history of stalled projects, […]
Wastefilter: From Prison to Power Plant | FAP 2022 Merit
The process of industrialisation and modernisation has inevitably brought about a greater demand in electricity, especially in cities and urban areas in Vietnam. The process of generating more electricity—specifically from the operation of coal power plants—has had its fair share of negative impacts on the environment, namely the problem of emissions, waste water and waste, […]
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Revival Waste: Propagating Permaculture | FAP 2022 Third Place
According to the team’s research, residents in Hanoi contribute an average of 7,000 tonnes of waste a day, including organic and inorganic waste, as well as recyclable garbage. Averagely, 6 per cent of the 414 tonnes of inorganic waste is not recyclable and thus buried—the rest of the waste can be processed and reused as […]
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Q Gallery Building: A large ‘tree pot’ in the city
Ho Chi Minh City as the largest urban area in Vietnam is facing problems of pollution and increasing temperatures, hampering citizens’ quality of life. These problems are exacerbated by the growth of hardscaped land alongside a lack of green space. According to the General Department of Forestry, the ratio of tree cover in Vietnam’s large […]
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CH House: A ‘tube house’ to work, live and gather in
This project is a ‘tube house’—an extremely narrow, elongated dwelling going up several storeys above ground—typical of dwellings in Hanoi City, the capital of Vietnam. It faces all of the problems brought about by the density of the city: spanning only 4.2 metres in width and 35 metres in length, while being tightly sandwiched between […]
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A showcase of creative frugality: Hippo Farm Bioclimatic Dormitories
Located about 30 kilometres away from Ho Chi Minh City, Hippo Farm’s dormitories are an expansion of a three-hectare permaculture farm geared towards children and families. It is akin to a summer camp where the visitors can enjoy activities such as horse riding, farming and gardening, learning first-hand about Nature and sustainable practices. According to […]
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