The project is located on a land of 36m2, nestled in a lively small alley near Nhieu Loc Canal, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The building is used as apartments for rent. The client’s request the design to have minimal costs, optimizing usage and a prominent identity.
The locally available materials such as fired bricks, concrete, steel, and glass are used, combined with basic construction techniques to ensure the limited investment cost and the best completion for the project.
Taking into account the limits of usable space and functional requirements, our ground floor space is designed to be open and flexible, including living, kitchen - dining and working spaces.
The stair to move between floors, using steel materials to create a sense of lightness, and conven-ient during the installation process. Arranged at the end of the house, the stair also act as a buffer zone, which transports light and wind, regulates the indoor environment temperature.
Each small rooms, private spaces, are calculated to the maximum area of use, for business purposes. While the common spaces are intertwined, incorporating new ways of thinking about basic materi-als to create interesting features for the building, avoid boredom.
The facade is a “cover” between the activities inside the house and the lively activities taking place outside the alley. The windows are calculated to provide enough light for use. Combined with the use of fired brick materials, the way of designing the tiles on the façade creates a sense of liveli-ness, evoking the image of the always flowing, changing Nhieu Loc canal. The facade of the build-ing reduces heat radiation and increase sound insulation for the interior of the house, while helping the project to have a clear identity and individuality in the area.
