HN08 House is a seven-level urban residence in Hà Nội that stages landscape as primary architecture. A raised front garden, a central atrium, and operable envelopes choreograph light, air, views, and privacy to support three generations. The project revisits Vietnamese vernacular thresholds through verandas and courtyards while deploying contemporary environmental controls to temper the hot, humid climate.
HN08 House Technical Information
- Architects: TNT Architecture
- Location: Hà Nội, Vietnam
- Gross Area: 1,065 m2 | 11,463 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2022 – 2024
- Photographs: © Triệu Chiến
Traditional spatial qualities are reimagined through a multilayered composition of verandas, courtyards, and voids that expand and interconnect spaces. At the heart of the house, a vertical core functions as a lung, drawing light and wind deep inside while visually and spatially connecting all levels.
– Bùi Quang Tiến
Urban Threshold: Elevated Garden as Buffer and Interface
The project confronts the street with an inhabited landscape rather than a fence. A sloping, elevated garden spans the frontage, lifting soil and planting into a protective mass that filters noise and dust while occupying the urban setback with productive ecology. The garden reads as a thickened threshold that reorients entry from a direct street-to-door sequence toward a slower, shaded ascent framed by vegetation.
Below this green volume, the ground-level playground and timber veranda create a social forecourt. The veranda recalls the Vietnamese hiên as an intermediate room where domestic life meets neighborhood life. Yet, it is calibrated for contemporary density through depth, shade, and visual screening from the planted berm above. Together, these elements offer a porous interface that invites casual gatherings while safeguarding the household’s privacy.
Positioning landscape as structure rather than decoration has measurable environmental effects on a compact urban plot. The soil mass moderates radiant heat, supports evapotranspiration, and blocks oblique views to interior rooms. As a consequence, the house reduces reliance on fully sealed interiors and air conditioning during shoulder seasons, turning the entrance condition into the building’s first climatic instrument.
Sectional Porosity: Voids, Verandas, and Transitional Space
A central vertical void organizes the plan and section as an environmental spine. Daylight penetrates deep into the floor plates, and warm air is exhausted upward to promote stack ventilation across multiple levels. By aligning stairs, bridges, and landings with this void, the architects create reciprocal views that connect generations without collapsing privacy.
Transitional spaces are layered around the atrium and gardens, producing a gradation of exposure rather than a hard exterior–interior divide. Verandas open to planted edges, reception areas borrow light from the void through operable glazing, and bedrooms step back from the facade behind screened layers. Each threshold performs climatically through shade, air movement, and moisture control, while enabling residents to tune the degree of openness throughout the day.
Circulation and sightlines reinforce legibility. Movement traces the edge of the atrium, providing immediate orientation and allowing passive supervision across levels. Cross-floor visual continuity encourages casual interaction, yet acoustic separation is maintained by offsetting doors, using absorptive finishes in corridors, and concentrating noisy programs near the garden and terrace zones rather than the sleeping floors.
Adaptive Envelope: Operable Layers for Climate and Privacy
The facade combines a clear structural line with adjustable environmental layers. Behind a weather-tight glass line, automated louvers manage solar gain and glare, particularly on east and west exposures common in narrow urban lots. The ability to modulate angle and openness extends comfort windows for natural ventilation and reduces peak cooling loads during hot months.
Transparency varies by program. Double-glazed operable panels in reception and tea spaces enable cross-ventilation while allowing the atrium to act as a pressure-balanced plenum. Timber screens and sliding shutters in the worship room and bedrooms provide visual discretion and soft daylight, transforming the facade from a flat image into a performative depth where privacy and climate are continuously negotiated.
Material articulation is restrained and tactile. Timber at the veranda and interior screens introduces warmth and haptic legibility, while glazing and shading devices deliver contemporary performance and durability. Joints, handles, and walking surfaces are conceived for frequent use in a humid environment, favoring species and coatings that resist warping and corrosion and detailing that sheds water away from frames and sills.
Program Logic: Stratified Living for Three Generations
The program is vertically sequenced to pair activities with specific microclimates created by the garden and atrium. The ground level hosts a play zone and veranda as a shared, ventilated forecourt. The second level houses the tea and reception areas, linked directly to the sloped garden and the void. The third and fourth levels consolidate daily living with a lounge, kitchen, and bedrooms around the atrium. The fifth level forms a quieter master suite connected to both the facade and the central void. Above, a communal deck on the sixth level features a swimming pool and a smaller wading pool set amid greenery. In contrast, the seventh level houses the worship space with operable wooden screens. The rooftop integrates technical services with a compact vegetable garden.
Daylight and air are distributed by orienting rooms to the void and to planted edges, creating multiple cross-ventilation paths that can be tuned with louvers and internal doors. Socially, this arrangement keeps high-traffic programs close to the garden and terrace, where activity can expand outdoors. At the same time, sleeping areas sit deeper in the section with buffered orientations and tighter control of light and sound. Visual links across bridges and landings maintain cohesion without eroding the privacy expected by different generations.
Elevated landscapes and water impose precise technical demands. The sloped front garden and rooftop pools require a robust structure, controlled loading, layered waterproofing with positive drainage, root barriers, and inspection zones at the edges. Overflow gutters, skimmers, and balanced return inlets manage water clarity and noise, and non-slip timber decking mediates between wet and dry surfaces. Maintenance is built into the architecture through accessible pump rooms, clean-out points, and safe perimeter clearances, ensuring everyday use remains practical over time.
About TNT Architecture
TNT Architecture is a multidisciplinary architectural studio founded in 2020 and based in Vietnam. Led by principal architect Bùi Quang Tiến, the firm explores Vietnamese cultural identity through contemporary spatial strategies, emphasizing climatically responsive design, layered thresholds, and the integration of landscape. Their projects connect people and the environment through concepts that prioritize natural light, ventilation, and community-driven living within dense urban contexts.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Client: Private Residential Client
- Construction company: TNT Architecture
- Other contributors: Mr.Vinh, Mr.Thuận, Art Steel, Bac Terrazzo, Cama Wood, Thanh Tùng Decor, Croled, Kenli, Rita Võ, Shoji Tech
