Ho Chi Minh City-based architecture studio Le House has wrapped this small hotel with a porous steel facade that features irregular pattern and makes the building as bright as a lantern with the intentional light in order to create the optimal effects. 

Called Nap Am Homestay, the 790-square-metre hotel is located on a high slope and hidden deep inside a narrow alley of Da Lat, Vietnam - with its outer facade the project becomes a shining lantern within the existing fabric. The hotel contains 9 guest rooms in total and a duplex room is situated in the attic area. 

The five-storey hotel presents a tropical atmosphere in the interior, while trees and plants are suspended from planters to contrast with wooden materials inside.

As the studio highlights, the striking feature distinctively from everything surrounded is the typical white and the architecture that represents the characteristics of this misty city. 

"Notwithstanding, inheriting a modern architectural style, its façade has been entirely covered with a white painted steel layer as well as being CNC machined with its separately-design motifs," said the architects.

Besides that, the utilization of the painted steel material and the surface treatment appropriate to the rainy weather and the regional high humidity are also the most concerned factors of our design team. 

Being immersed in the daylight, the building has a completely contrasting nuance to its appearance when the night falls, furthermore, the whole building will be as bright as a lantern with the intentional light in order to create the optimal effects. 

This outstanding construction has already been the wonderful signage of itself regardless of the fact that it does not have any large signs around.

The architects divided the interior space into 3 floors and 1 attic, the arrangement of interconnected floors is the staircase extending from the main hall to the common living area. 

Mentioning to this floor, there is an adorable humble kitchen combining with a tremendously comfortable dining section and a working zone. 

A total of 9 rooms also including the collective and the private hygiene areas that were built to suit all the demands of guests, in which the duplex room is the main highlight for in the attic area.

"The whole building on sunny days will be sparkle with sunbeams and glow up the town and suddenly make every corner to become an ideal studio for those who have an intense passion for photography," added the studio. 

"Or someday-dreamers like me can find a little corner beside a long wooden table to quietly gaze at the sky behind the golden flower trees swaying in the wind." 

"Sometimes being filled with sorrow, it is the best way to release some of it by dazing with a sad song while sipping a cup of tea typical from this highland." 

The faint scent of pine wood reflected in the cold breeze serves people with romance because this is Da Lat, the place of those emotions thick in the air promises to make everyone come once then miss for a lifetime.

"Even though having a medium-size, our design team still cares about the sufficient experience of our visitors, hence, a Jacuzzi bathtub is added for the ones who seek the feeling of soaking in hot water in the cold weather." 

"It will be a great memory to enjoy the space full of poetry as well as watching the long-sided foliage with early sunshine."

For its outer structure, it was formed from a combination of shaped steels but it did not get too rigid. On the other hand, the architects tried to create a harmonious collaboration between pinewood and white color creating a gentle intimacy and contributing more to Da Lat a worth experiencing attraction during each person's lifetime.

First floor plan

Second floor plan

Third floor plan

Fourth floor plan

Fifth floor plan

Section A

Section B

Project facts

Project name: Nap Am Homestay

Architects: Le House

Location: Da Lat city, Vietnam

Size: 790m2

Date: 2020 

All images © Trieu Chien

All drawings © Le House

> via Le House