Stacking Roof Gardens Adds Greenery To Urban House

Designed by: VTN Architects.

Location: Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam | Latitude: 10.80771˚ N

Introduction

This fantastic house adds greenery throughout by using a series of stacking roof gardens. 

Though it is an urban house, it finds unique ways of maximising the greenery around the home’s interior.

VTN Architects is the designer of the Binh House. In this home, they use strategies to connect the family with the natural environment and each other.

Location, Site and Climate

The Binh House is in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. 

At 10.80771˚ N latitude, Ho Chi Minh City is in the tropical region north of the equator.

It has a hot, humid climate. According to Vietnam Online, the temperature range is 23˚C (73.4˚F) to 34.4˚C (95.72˚F). It has wet and dry seasons.

House Design Brief

The Binh House has three (3) bedrooms and three (3) bathrooms. It is a private residential dwelling for three generations.

“The inhabitants are a family of three generations. Therefore, the challenge is to create spaces which allow its residents to interact and communicate despite their differences.”

– VTN Architects

This home is 233 m2 or 2,508 sq. ft. and sits on a 321.6 m2 or 3,462 sq. ft. site. The house was completed in 2016.

Home Design Approach

Vietnam’s cities are rapidly urbanising. They are disconnecting more from their natural origins as low-density, tropical green spaces. As a result, new urban developments are losing their connection with nature. 

Photo: Hiroyuki Oki

The Binh House seeks to change that as part of the “House for Trees” series. In this series, VTN Architects explore prototypical housing designs that bring green space into high-density neighbourhoods.

House Design Layout

This house has a fascinating layout. It is a house with courtyard gardens and other outdoor spaces. The stacking volumes with outdoor spaces between them are unique and create pleasant indoor-to-outdoor connections.

These are transparent volumes and contain public and private spaces. They include the living and dining rooms as well as the bedrooms.

The other side of the house is more solid. That side carries the services such as the stair, kitchen and bathrooms.

Ground Floor Plan

As you enter the site on the ground floor off the street, you enter a foyer before entering the living room. 

From the living room, you can go to the dining room via an internal garden area that separates the two rooms. In addition, the dining room is between two courtyard gardens.

Access to the upper floors is also possible from the living room through the stairwell. This stair is enclosed and is behind a door.

The kitchen is semi-enclosed, with a wide doorway from the dining room. The bedroom is next to a semi-outdoor garden that is partially open to the sky. In addition, a bathroom and powder room are also on the ground floor level. 

First Floor Plan

Two bedrooms and two bathrooms are on the next floor above. These two bedrooms are on either end of the house. They are a series of gardens and voids between the both of them. 

In addition, from the bedrooms, you can look down into the internal and semi-outdoor gardens. You can also look up at the open-to-sky vegetable garden. These bedrooms also have views from out of the property.

Second Floor Plan

On the top floor are a study and an outdoor jacuzzi area. This jacuzzi sits on a deck next to a roof garden. The garden provides privacy to the jacuzzi or spa area.

Photo: Hiroyuki Oki

Roof Plan

The layout of this home takes every opportunity to interact with gardens.

Stacked Roof Gardens Add Greenery Throughout Home

Binh House comprises a series of stacking spaces and volumes. Each volume has roof gardens with greenery above them. However, these vertically stacking spaces occur at varying heights. Hence, there is an interesting layering of spaces and roof gardens.

Section

This interaction creates a fascinating relationship between rooms and roof gardens. 

Therefore, homeowners can look up or down to green roofs over adjacent rooms when in a room. In addition, there are gardens on the ground floor within the house. 

This arrangement produces an incredible sense of connection to greenery. 

The interaction with these green spaces within the home gives the sense of almost being in a tree house. It is an incredible biophilic response for a home in an urban context.

Photo: Hiroyuki Oki

In addition, it is an excellent way of adding food-bearing plants to a home in an urban setting.

“Vegetables can also be planted to serve its resident’s daily needs. This vertical farming solution is suitable for high-density housing whilst also contributing to the Vietnamese way of life.”

– VTN Architects

Glass Sliding Doors Increase Interaction with Nature and People

“Living, dining, bedrooms, and study room are continuously opened. From one room, people’s sightlines can reach beyond to the other rooms via the gardens.”

– VTN Architects

On the sides of the main rooms are large glass sliding doors and glazing. Rooms like the living, dining and bedrooms open to outdoor and semi-outdoor spaces through expansive glazed openings.

Photo: Hiroyuki Oki

Additionally, these rooms are open to each other as well. Open spaces between them separate the rooms. However, there is a view of the other rooms. This view through the large glass sliding doors helps to maintain a connection with other family members.

“…but the alternately stacking openings also increase visibility and interaction between the family members.”

– VTN Architects

In addition, this alternating stacking of volumes also produces a fascinating relationship between rooms. From any given room, the view of adjacent rooms may be higher, lower or both relative to the room you are in.

This arrangement creates an intriguing experience within the home. The stacking, along with the trees and plants, also provides some privacy.

“The architecture is not only to meet the functional and aesthetic concerns but also as a means to connect people to people and people to nature.”

– VTN Architects

Using Greenery and Roof Gardens To Improve Microclimate

This house creates incredible connections to nature with the gardens on top of the vertically stacking spaces and the sliding glass doors. However, these two features also help improve the home’s microclimate.

Sliding doors are on both sides of each room. Hence, each space is just one room deep. 

This arrangement is ideal for cross ventilation because the wind does not have a far distance to travel.

In addition, since the sliding doors are always open, they allow for ample natural ventilation to enter every room.

Furthermore, the glass openings also allow natural daylight inside. However, the trees and other greenery from the roof gardens also provide some shade.

“The roof gardens host large trees for shading, therefore reducing indoor temperature.”

– VTN Architects

Photo: Hiroyuki Oki

Hence, indoor spaces receive filtered light through the trees. This condition permits natural light inside but reduces the heat that direct sunlight can cause in a tropical home.

Natural ventilation combines with the sun shading from the trees. As such, this house creates a fantastic indoor microclimate. These strategies produce a home that is cool and thermally comfortable.

Incorporating Passive Strategies For Energy Efficiency

You can use two main strategies in your tropical home to make it cool and comfortable. 

These are: 

1. Reducing heat gain from direct sunlight and
2. Encouraging maximum natural ventilation.

VTN Architects incorporates techniques to ensure those two main strategies occur.

Large sliding doors on either side of each room ensure maximum natural cross ventilation. 

Photo: Quang Đàm

Plants and trees provide shade to roofs and outdoor areas between rooms. This technique offers shade from the sun to the home’s interior. However, it also helps reduce the temperature of the air flowing through the spaces. Cool spaces outside a window or door mean the air coming into the room is also cooler.

These are excellent tropical design strategies that create a sustainable house.

In addition, the house’s west side is usually the home’s hottest wall. The low west-facing sun can be intense. VTN Architects locate the service areas on this side of the house, such as the kitchen, bathrooms, stairs and corridors. 

The homeowners only occupy these rooms for a short period. Therefore, these rooms protect the main rooms from heat radiation from the west-facing walls.   

“The vertical variation of spaces creates a lopsided pressure difference. Thus, when the surrounding houses are built, natural ventilation is maintained.”

– VTN Architects

Surrounding homes and structures can impact the amount of natural ventilation that enters your home. However, because of the stacking arrangement of the rooms and the spaces between them help to encourage more air movement within the home.

“Thanks to these passive strategies, the house always stays cool in the tropical climate. Air conditioning system is rarely used.”

– VTN Architects

These passive strategies combine to create a cooler microclimate in this house. Hence, producing a home that is more sustainable and energy efficient. It significantly reduces operational and maintenance costs. 

Construction and Materials

The structure of Binh House is primarily concrete. They also incorporate sustainable materials like natural stone and wood.

Conclusion

Binh House intends to be a House for Trees and does a fantastic job. It is a modern home that responds well to its tropical climate.

The stacking roof gardens add a lot of greenery. Though the house is in an urban context, the interior feels closely connected with vegetation.

Using large glass sliding doors between the spaces and gardens ensures the family is always in contact with nature and each other.

Photo: Quang Đàm

These gardens and large door openings are also great ways of promoting passive strategies. The trees provide shade, and the doors allow for ample natural ventilation. 

Together, these elements create a microclimate in the house that is cool and comfortable. Hence, it creates a home that is ideal for its hot, tropical climate.

Related articles:

• Check out these additional dwellings with charming courtyards.

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Architect: VTN Architects
Photographer: Hiroyuki Oki, Quang Đàm