kientruc o remodels traditional 70 year old vietnamese villa using spatial voids

vietnamese-based architecture firm kientruc o were commissioned to remodel a traditional vietnamese house into a contemporary structure using spatial voids. the main challenge that arose throughout the renovation process, according to head architect đàm vũ, was deciding which pre-existing elements would remain as part of the newly remodeled house. the residence is a seventy years old colonial villa that sits on one of the busiest road in the heart of the city.

central void

the original house is a brick building that later expanded with an additional separate steel structure at the rear-end of the house twenty years ago. confronted with the constant chaos of the city, the kientruc o-designed house juxtaposes against its urban context by introverting itself through spatial subtraction, creating a void that denotes its noisy context. elliptical in geometry, the void carves along the horizontal side of the house toward the steel structure to the back, continuing upward to the roof forming the receding pattern of the floors above and the spatial abstraction of the void’s geometry is materialized. 

first floor garden

receding floor plates

separate residential entrance

soft boundary between the interior and exterior of the house

steel grated floor plate

the pond in the central void

Wall of stacking tiles as an acoustical buffer element

axonometric sketch

initial house model

perspective

site plan

project info:

architects: kientruc o
principal architect: đàm vũ
design team: an-ni lê, dân hồ, tài nguyễn, duy tăng, nhung hồ
project year: 2017
floor area: 775 sqm
photography: hiroyuki oki

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edited by: lynn chaya | designboom