Da Nang architecture has been impressively marked by talented domestic and foreign architects such as Bill Bensley, who ‘painted’ the shape of the InterContinental Da Nang Sun Peninsula Resort, Vo Trong Nghia with bamboo architectural design at the Naman Retreat Resort and Pham Thi Ai Thuy from the TA Landscape Architecture Company with the Golden Bridge landmark. Especially, in the international architectural projects, there is the presence of a young Da Nang architect: Ho Khue.

The architecture of the ‘M Garden City Hotel Da Nang’ project - the vertical garden designed architect Ho Khue- won the Best Hotel Architectural Design at the Viet Nam Property Awards 2020 held by Singapore’s PropertyGuru Award. Photo: TRIEU TUNG

Elevate architectural value of urban houses

Director of ALPES - Architect Ho Khue, 44, is ‘the author’ of many unique projects, leaving a deep impression and creating new trends in design with the possession of more than 30 domestic and international architectural awards.

The young man dwelling in Tho Quang Ward, Son Tra District, was an excellent student of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture. Although having operated in his home city for only 7 years, architect Ho Khue has achieved worth-praising success.

One of Ho Khue –designed typical works honoured at the international level is ‘The Green Peace Village’ located at 121 Nguyen Cong Tru Street, Son Tra District. This is a 5-storey apartment building comprising of 8 bedrooms, built on a typical narrow plot of land with dimensions of 6m x 40m.

As a business project, it is extremely important to create an attractive new space for the project.The talented architect created ‘The Green Peace Village’ into a green building with the array of plants with the aim of combining nature and light to create natural and healthy living environment.

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. The material used for the construction is unburnt bricks which are environment friendly. This building has emerged as a unique architectural highlight for the whole area.

Next, the 5mx16m ‘The Concrete House’ is a 4-storey house in Son Tra District with the volumetric form of the structure derived from a ‘box’. The idea of architectural cubes is evolved from the playful imaginations of children’s LEGO game and each floor is commensurate with ‘stacked’ and ‘sliding’ box block. These boxes help in creating simple, powerful and fun architectural shapes.

Many voids and open spaces within the box make space look wider and larger, thus giving comfort for the user. This architectural solution contributes to changing the mindset of mainstream and boring rigid block building houses in the current urban housing scenario.

The combination of improvised concrete ‘boxes’ create a flexible, airy space inside the house carving large atrium to bring natural greens inside. All spaces are connected with corridor bridges & stairs linking the rooms. Central atrium formed also encourages visually and verbal communications within the house connecting family members.

Meanwhile, with the garden house project ‘An Nhien Place’ with an area of 300m² in Euro Village 2 belonging to the Hoa Xuan ecological urban area, architect Ho Khue seems to contribute to changing the perspective of architecture in the urban space into the wonderful harmony between urban houses and the nature.

Recently, locals and tourists in Da Nang have been impressed by the M Garden City Hotel coastal project in Phuoc My Ward, Son Tra District, which looks like a ‘vertical garden’ with a height of 25 floors.
This is really a unique architectural product that is bringing architectural imprints to the city in the process of urban development.

The work brings artistic inspiration, becomes an attractive venue with a highly-inviting green space and a highlight of the Da Nang urban spatial architecture.

Promoting Da Nang architecture to other parts of the world

Architect Ho Khue has won many prestigious international awards, for instance, the second prize in the housing category at the Rethinking The Future Architecture Awards 2020 in India for his ‘brainchild’ named ‘The Green Peace Village’. The event is one of the most Renowned Awards in the field of Architecture and Design.

Also noticeably, ‘The Green Peace Village’ was was honored at the Architecture MasterPrize (AMP) 2020 in the U.S., a global architecture award that honors designs in the disciplines of architecture, interior design, and landscape architecture with the goal of advancing the appreciation of architecture worldwide.

With his outstanding contributions to Viet Nam's architecture, on September 24, 2020, architect Ho Khue was honored at the 5th Green Architecture Award organized by the Viet Nam Association of Architects with the thematic prize on ‘The ultimate solution optimizing environmental quality in urban housing’ for ‘The Green Peace Village’.

In a similar vein, ‘The Concrete House’ was awarded at the Green Good Design Award 2020 in the U.S. This is one of the most important awards in the world for green design, with the goal of bestowing international recognition to those outstanding individuals, companies, organizations, governments, and institutions - together with their products, services, programs, ideas, and concepts-that have forwarded exceptional thinking and inspired greater progress toward a more healthier and more sustainable universe.

Recently, Ho Khue continued to be honoured at the Viet Nam Property Awards 2020 held in Singapore for his ‘M Garden City Hotel Da Nang’.

Previously, in 2018, this architect was honoured at the FuturArc Green Leadership Award held by BCI Asia based in Australia and the WAF World Architecture Festival Award for his green office buildings.

“I always think that every architectural work I create today must really benefit society in a lasting way. Then the effort reflected in the work will be a legacy for the next generation. My architectural philosophy is influenced by two factors.  Architecture for the sake of humanity, which is to put the user's emotions first. I follow the trend of green architecture, which is to cherish and take advantage of what nature be generously bestows us such as sunshine, wind, rain and green trees. Also, culture is an important element in architecture since it has a profound influence on the work. All architectural designs must serve people”, said Ho Khue.

Currently, many domestic and foreign news agencies look to the architectural works created by architect Ho Khue to promote an architectural philosophy that is modern and groundbreaking. His new creations filled with high creativity are taking shape, including large-scale urban projects and others throughout the country.

With his natural talent and strong passion for architecture, the talented architect is on his outstanding mission of promoting Vietnamese architecture, which is imbued with Da Nang's identity to other parts of the world.

Reporting by TRIEU TUNG – Translating by A.THU