We don’t typically publish stories about the design of individual homes, but sometimes you need to give credit where it’s due. In Ha Long, Vietnam, an architecture studio has created a stunning concrete home that has trees spilling out its windows and balconies.
As Curbed writer Liz Stinson put it, it’s like a cool giant planter. The house is built as a pentagon within a pentagon. The faceted concrete facade encases an interior pentagon, and the semi-exterior space in between allows plants to grow. This buffer space is as much about the garden as it is about climate control; shadows and extra cladding protect the interior from Vietnam’s tropical climate.
Inside the buffer zone, a stairway leads from one balcony with trees to another. Because the trees fill every level of the house, the rooms, decked out in wood and concrete, all look out to the immediate greenery growing just outside the windows. “The main concept of the house is to create space where people can live in a forest,” writes Vo Trong Nghia Architects, who are veterans of lush concrete architecture.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if the future of home design looked more like this?
