Da Lat — a highland resort city in Vietnam — is becoming increasingly dense with accommodation developments. As construction density continues to grow, the greenery, open spaces, and close relationship with the terrain that once defined the city’s distinctive character are becoming values that require greater consideration.
Nha Nhim Homestay occupies a long, narrow site with an unusual chili-pepper-like shape, measuring only approximately 8 meters in width, with a built-up area of 262 m². The sloping terrain and surrounding buildings make organizing a homestay a complex challenge. Rather than seeking to maximize the available area, A+ Architects posed a different question: When a building cannot expand horizontally, can the experience be expanded in another way?
Nha Nhim does not attempt to overcome the site’s limitations, but instead transforms them into design materials. The existing slope is retained and integrated into the spatial structure, while the existing tree canopies become part of both the architecture and the guest experience.
This approach extends to the use of materials. Old wooden doors, steel frames, bricks, and reclaimed materials are recovered and given another life. Scratches, aged finishes, and traces of time are intentionally left visible, preserving a value that new materials can rarely recreate.
This approach translates A+ Architects’ Kiệm Architecture philosophy into a concrete and consistent design method: restraining intervention rather than intervening more, making use of what already exists rather than replacing it, and giving materials a new life rather than starting from scratch. Through this process, what is old is no longer regarded as something to be removed, but becomes a material through which a distinctive hospitality space and its own story can emerge.
Nha Nhim is shaped through a careful distillation of what already exists and what truly needs to be added. The existing greenery is preserved, reclaimed materials are given another life, and the traces of time become part of the spatial experience.
Nha Nhim Homestay is a modest effort in this direction: to build without overwhelming, to renew without denying the past, and to create new value by respecting the values that already exist.
