In southern Vietnam, where temperatures often hover above 90 degrees, climate control isn't a luxury, it's an essential consideration. For their Tropical Suburb House in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, MM++ Architects put a modern spin on vernacular methods and regional building traditions to help manage the heat and create an open-air living space. By layering palm fronds on the roof of their modernist home, they adapted a traditional technique to keep the concrete slabs underneath from baking in the sun.
The layout, which features a ground floor kitchen and dining area flanked on one side and open to the garden, adapted aspects of the traditional Southeast Asian stilt house to maximize outdoor space. The mix of raw materials and modern design, such as a recycled, perforated brick and a multi-colored cement tile floor, creates intriguing contrasts.
· Vietnam house by MM++ Architects features a palm-leaf roof and an open-air living space [Dezeen]