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 spaces and internal circulation, thereby [shaping] behaviour and [lifestyle],” they mentioned.

The forms of the outer envelope, roof, load-bearing columns and even inner spaces were designed to optimise the modules of prefabricated materials. The design also used materials that could be sourced easily within a radius of one kilometre.

From the outside, this house appears no different from other corrugated iron homes in the countryside. But notably, the structural frame of this house also served as a sliding door/window/curtain frame, and even as a module to hang furniture and clothes. “We sought to reduce the cost of construction by creating multiple ‘role-playing’ structures,” wrote the architects.

The interiors were conceived as three-dimensional hollow frames, modularised so that the owner could develop more spaces later without departing from the initial design. As a result, the house is one where users can shape its development according to their needs—designed ahead for future growth.

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PROJECT DATA

Project Name
Binh Thuan House

Location
Ham Bac Thuan District, Binh Thuan Province, Vietnam

Completion Date
2021

Site Area
150 square metres

Construction Area
126.2 square metres

Total Floor Area
86.3 square metres

Architecture Firm
MIA Design Studio

Principal Architect
Nguyen Hoang Manh

Architecture, Interior and Technical Design
Truong Nguyen Quoc Trung; Le Kim Dieu Thien

General Contractor
Coppha Builder

Interior Contractor
H2

Curtain Supplier
LAM Weaving Spaces

Photos
Trieu Chien

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