Nam Dinh Country Villa

We talked with Mrs.Hai around late 2020 about a new project, which was about to be one of the most challenging ones in recent years. The contractor requested us to modernize her traditional house without losing its well-known cultural properties of the Vietnamese countryside. Moreover, because her mansion used to be where the residents around her village came and met, she wanted us to design two buildings. Specifically, one acts as the community house, and the other is where her family lives.

Because of the enormous space we got, ideas came quite easily. However, none of them is perfect, so we had to select what we believed to be the best amongst all. We divided the mainland into two parts: the community room and the villa. The villa was placed far from the road so the owner will be minimally affected by the noises created by traffic vehicles. We settled the community room between the villa and the road, which prevents the children from violating the owners’ privacy. All were connected by a corridor on the side of the community house.

In front of the community room is a spacious front yard and a small garden, which helps to distract villagers from the main villa. The design of the community room followed traditional Vietnamese architecture. To prevent direct sunlight and keep the house cool, we added some air blocks and wooden doors. For the roof, we used hard black slate stone to furtherly lower the room temperature.

Finally, for the main villa, we followed the concept of Sekiguchi Catholic Church, St. Mary’s Cathedral. Specifically, we designed two high, white color blocks with a cross-shaped window. Such a design gives two advantages: 1) fit Catholic people, which is the case of the owner’s family, and 2) allow the natural sunlight to enter. Moreover, if you look closely, you can notice that the blocks levitated from the ground, and one of them even occupied a tiny part of the pond. This feature made the building light and connective to nature despite being colossal.

This project took us nearly a year to complete, from the design to the construction process. In conclusion, this is one of the most complicated projects I have done recently, and is unquestionably my 2020 best exterior project!