Vietnamese architecture studio Ho Khue Architects has brought natural and jungle life into an apartment building in a dense neighborhood of Da Nang City in Vietnam. 

Named Green Peace Village, the five-storey apartment building is located in urban area of Da Nang city of Vietnam. The building challenges to the typical apartment buildings that have no connections between neighbours and the nature. 

Covering a total of 815-square-metre area, the building is extended towards back and features terraces apartment units that contain plants, trees and flowers onto terraces. 

The building typically contains 3 apartments and every units has a passage, garden, dry balcony. Other amenities, including fitness center, coffee shop, laundry room, have been placed on the ground level. A swimming pool and seating area have been designed on the top floor to dominate the city landscape. 

"Housing typology in urban areas is getting more and more monotonous because of the plot sizes available," said the architects. 

"Most sites are rectangular with common walls and front connected to main road. Front side is the only source of light and ventilation making it challenging to design."

"Houses in rural Vietnam are planned around common spaces lile gardens, ponds, lakes where people connect together," they added. "In urban areas, due to lack of area there are less community spaces affecting the users and their connectivity with each other. As the structures started getting higher, maintaining connectivity between the users became difficult."

The main concept of the structure was derived from terraced fields. The units are stacked on each other with stepped terraces which provides plenty of light to the apartment units. On the inner sides, atriums are provided so as to get natural light and air ventilation.

Stepped terraces provide connectivity between the users and increase vertical interaction. There are small common spaces, gardens for users to gather and interact with each other.

The material used for the construction is unburnt bricks which are environment friendly. Brick texture gives a sense of warmth and simple village life of Vietnam. The objective of this design is to combine nature and light to create natural and healthy living environment. 

Green architecture is very common in rural areas of Vietnam and many architecture offices use green infills in their vertical buildings as part of their architecture so that the nature can be a part of healthy and daily life. See various projects including free infills in Vietnam. 

All images © Hiroyuki Oki 

All drawings © Ho Khue Architects

> via Ho Khue Architects