Just like several other tube houses in Saigon, this Floating Nest is a tube house façade situated in a busy suburban of Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. The building has a woven bamboo screen that is running the whole length of its façade. This exterior helps the entire building from the harsh west sunlight while maintaining a high degree of privacy. Designed by Atelier NgNg, the building is an element of traditional Vietnamese architecture. Iron, glass and wood completes the material palette of this project, coalesced with plentiful foliage throughout the building.

The edifice allows the owner to fulfill her passion of gardening as she was looking for a foremost and an airy and relaxing space after a tiring day at work, complete with abundant green areas to satisfy her gardening hobby. It is covered by neighboring edifices on all three sides, having only one open side facing the exterior, yet, toward the west. Even with the given spatial constraints, the firm satisfied the client’s requests by enhancing daylighting and ventilation. This is done by omitting partition walls within the building, using ‘void ‘and ‘greenery’ to separate functional spaces.

Three Large Voids

There are three large voids: a front and a back gardens, spanning all three floors, separating the streets and the house; a central lightwell, across the two upper floors, separating the home office from the resting area, the garden from the place of worship.

Greenery to Separate Inside From Outside

Small gardens are used similarly to separate the interior and exterior; the toilet and bedroom or kitchen; the bedrooms and stairs.

This solution creates smooth spatial transition while ensuring that all functional spaces are in contact with nature.

Material Palette

A combination of traditional and contemporary materials- bamboo, wood, combined with glass, iron- are used in building design which are reminiscent of spaces in Vietnamese villages. Bamboo is an economical and eco-friendly material that is available in plenty there.

This bamboo curtain in the façade of the building rolls up to shade the rooftop. The CNC iron partitions attributes cut out leaf patterns, which is also a stylized version of the traditional wind screen (bình phong). It works as a light and air convection device. CNC iron is also used as sunshades on balconies and for the entrance gate.

Vertical Bamboo Sticks

The firm used a series of vertical bamboo sticks to design the ceiling at the backyard skylight, right over the stairs.

It provides a visual connection with the façade while serving as a sunshade. It also permits light to pass through, forming not only fascinating shadows but also happy sounds like wind chimes hung in gardens.

Thin sheet iron is used for architectural components that are often built with concrete such as stairs, plant pots, balconies, sunshades to reduce structural weight. Moreover, they are designed to look like being hung freely in the air.

This material is also used as the backdrop for the alter, worshipping area – the most important space within the house, which extends into the lower floor and becomes the meditation space.

Studio says that these different strategies make the whole house feel light, as if it were floating in a large green space and filled with light. During the sunset, the light from inside the house shines through the gaps between the bamboo trunks and the leave cuts on the iron walls, making the house look like a lantern in the middle of the neighbourhood.’

Project Details

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