Stepping Park House

Stepping Park House Project name: Stepping Park House Status: completed 2018 Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Site Area: 252 m2 GFA: 475m2 Design Firm: VTN Architects (Vo Trong Nghia Architects) Principal Architect: Vo Trong Nghia, Hidetoshi Sawa Project Architects: Nguyen Van Thien Photography: Hiroyuki Oki Contractor: Wind and Water House JSC Located in a new residential area of Ho Chi Minh City, adjacent to the park to the North, this project has a very rare opportunity for green space. We therefore focused on designing a house which works as a gradual transition of greenery from the outside to inside. Projected on the cross section, a large void was created by cutting the volume throughout the three floors. The void on ground floor serves as living room, opening to the park, while on the top as family room filled with greenery. The void incorporates both circulation and natural elements like plants and trees, providing the private rooms with additional natural light and a feeling of continuity of the park to all three floors of the building. Contrast to the common spaces, private rooms are placed in solid volumes. Planting trees in the opening of these volumes blocks direct sunlight, cools the wind and brightens up the interior space. The void opened diagonally upwards brings natural ventilation into the house, like the chimney effect, which helps minimizing air-conditioning use. Walking through this void, one will sense the wind ventilating from the ground to the top floor. At the same time, green facade eases the intense sunshine of the tropical climate, which makes the house becomes a precedent for housing in tropical climates. This house is one of the latest projects in a housing series called "House for Trees". The shortage of green space in Vietnam causes environmental problems such as urban flooding, overheating and air pollution. Presenting a solution to this problem is an urgent challenge that architecture needs to address. VTN architects integrates greenery as many as possible even in small houses, creating pockets of park in the city, and eventually aim for the “green building” to spread to the world.