A home named "Thang house", nestled in My An Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District, Da Nang, has won the FuturArc Green Leadership Award 2020 in the House category for its sustainable and green design excellence. 

The house covered with plants

The house was designed by the VTN Architects, a Ho Chi Minh City-based architecture studio founded by famous Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia. The property features were proposed to create a sustainable environment for learning, including a high-performance façade, a higher efficiency air conditioning system with heat recovery, reduced lighting power density, daylight responsive controls, increased fresh air flow rate, and a demand-driven fresh air supply system. 

Outside view of the home

The site for the house is divided into two parts—one containing the living spaces and the other is a void conceived as a green lung that faces the living spaces. It provides filtered air, diffused light and greenery/nature.

The 250m² house is designed with four main blocks. The largest one features common living spaces, whilst the remaining three smaller blocks consist of bedrooms.

The house is made of materials taken from Da Nang and its neighbouring localities

Intended to be self-sufficient, solar panels provide energy for the home while an automatic water recycling system circulates water between the fish pond and the planted areas. Recycled water from a ground-floor fish pond is used to nourish fruit trees on the roof of the house.

The integration of greenery and careful sequential planning and arrangement of spaces ensure a steady flow of clean air throughout the house and its surroundings. It filters out pollutants and diffuses the harsh sunlight before it reaches the interiors.

The roof garden and fish pond allow for biodiversity to thrive with the different species of fish, birds and insects coexisting under the same roof. In a way, the house gives nature back to the urban landscape.

A fishing pond inside the house

"Thang House" is mainly made of materials taken from Da Nang and its neighbouring localities, such as gray stone from Da Nang-based Hoa Son Quarry, and bricks from Quang Nam Province.

Large openings not only provide views of the rooms but also create a seamless link between the house's indoors and its outdoors.

The integration of greenery and careful sequential planning and arrangement of spaces ensure a steady flow of clean air throughout the house and its surroundings.

All living and bed rooms facing the garden

The annual FuturArc Green Leadership Award was launched in 2009 by the BCI Group of Companies to recognise innovative and ecologically responsible buildings in Asia and the teams behind them.

The award winners will be honoured at the BCI Asia Awards 2020 ceremony which is scheduled to take place in Ho Chi Minh City in May 2021.

By TRIEU TUNG – Translated by M.D