Designed as a modern house, The Soul Home provides a cozy living place for a family with 3 generations. This project is located in Vietnam and was completed by Ho Khue Architects in 2018. The main highlights of this house are its green courtyard and roof.
Design
This family house sits in an urban growing suburb of Da Nang, Vietnam. The clients, a couple, studied and worked in this suburb area which evokes nostalgic memories of childhood vacations. The brief is to create a modern house while keeping traditional and simple beliefs.
Juxtaposing the modern and rural beliefs and the family members’ lifestyles is the main challenge in this project.
Spaces
Organizing the common and private spaces of this house differently around the central patio is a design solution that comes out of the need to respect the daily life of each family member. This way creates a dwelling that has isolated volumes.
The common spaces like a family room, dining, and kitchen are separated from the private spaces like bathrooms and bedrooms. A bridge connects the isolated volumes of the house, encouraging movement and visual connection inside.
These house spaces are exposed with brick finishes to recreate the essence of a countryside home. Thanks to the isolated volumes of the house, a cool micro-climate can be maintained and the inner heat of spaces can be reduced as well.
Courtyard and Roof
With the green courtyard and roof, a green envelope over the spaces can be created which also helps the house in filtering sandy and hot winds.
The vertical and horizontal green on this house’s building can be used for urban farming of local vegetation for a healthy family lifestyle. This also helps the grandfather keeps the essence of his lifestyle to help the family live healthily.
This project is an attempt to create a sustainable long-lasting house where many family members can live separately but still be connected to each other with togetherness.
The Soul Home Gallery
Photographer: Khuestelo