In Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnamese metropolis known as Saigon until the '70s, only 0.25 percent of the area is allocated to green space, so when it comes to residential buildings, architects are getting creative. While one firm slots plants between slabs of structural concrete (a sort of lasagna of gray and green), Vietnamese firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects has designed a House for Trees, a coterie of concrete dwellings with boxes built to house mini courtyards up top. Unlike for your classic rooftop gardens, the dwellings themselves seem to act as planters for the gardens above, the thick layer of soil insulating the builidng as well as retaining water and diminishing flood risk. The entire project, five houses in all, was built for just $156K, a bottom-line owed primarily to its construction materials: locally sourced brick, bamboo formwork, and concrete. Take a look, below.
· Vo Trong Nghia Architects Stacks House For Trees in Vietnam [Design Boom]