‘a21house’ by a21studio, hochiminh city, vietnam image © hiroyuki oki all images courtesy of a21studio

recently shortlisted for the house category for the 2012 world architecture festival, the ‘a21house’ designed by vietnamese practice a21studio is a residence and office located ten minutes from the center of hochiminh city, vietnam. positioned upon a small 40-square meter plot, the polygonal shape only offers a 1.5 meter wide street frontage. situated at the end of a street, the site is bordered with the tall neighboring structures, making the task of generating an airy and illuminated home more challenging. envisioned as a cage for nature, a partially open-air structure resolves these constraints, capturing sunlight, wind and rainwater.

an acute building corner is chamfered at the roofline to form a triangular opening which filters daylight through the layers of interior spaces. the wood flooring dissolves into alternating sticks at the perimeter walls, allowing light to trickle downward and an averrhoa carambola tree to grow uninterrupted from ground level to the third storey. inhabitants can sit at their dining table and hear the breeze rustling through the leaves on the second floor. a wood stair and steel reinforcement railing leads to the second floor bathroom surfaced with traditional tilework. opposing the wooden bridge, a glass-enclosed bedroom views the top of the tree canopy and peers through the unsealed skylight towards the surrounding urban context.

exterior image © hiroyuki oki

ground level kitchen image © hiroyuki oki

first level studio image © hiroyuki oki

(left) upward view of tree growing through the wood stick flooring (right) stairway to second level images © hiroyuki oki

dining area and workstatins image © hiroyuki oki

workstations image © hiroyuki oki

dining area image © hiroyuki oki

tree continues to uninterrupted through the floor boards image © hiroyuki oki

niche image © hiroyuki oki

(left) daylight enters through triangular skylight (right) view through triangular skylight images © hiroyuki oki

view from bedroom through the skylight and to the top of the tree canopy image © hiroyuki oki

bedroom image © hiroyuki oki

light filters through wooden struts image © hiroyuki oki

(left) stairway to the third level plant room (right) railing and floor board detail images © hiroyuki oki

bathroom image © hiroyuki oki

view of bathroom from third floor image © hiroyuki oki

night view through skylight image © hiroyuki oki

floor plan / level 0

floor plan / level 1

floor plan / level 2

section

axonometric

diagram of layers within the home

surrounding environment

project info:

name of project: a21house location: binh thanh district, hochiminh, vietnam building area: 40m2 materials: brick, wood, concrete, steel, green completed: jan 2012 photographs: hiroyuki oki