M11 house is located in a suburban area HoChiMinh city . By using natural materials as wood and stone, utilizing top lights as well as placing small green-courtyards inside the house, the architect wants to bring out elegant and peaceful spaces to the client who can leave all his tiring behind after a long working day to enjoy his own space in a noisy and polluted environment of a developing city.
To integrate with nature, the architect brought the garden into home, merging it with the design. The area where the principal tree is planted almost resembles another room. The confined space it occupies means that the sound of its leaves is captured between the walls, resonating and bringing back the memories of the client’s hometown.
The client admits that he was greatly influenced by the designers as they worked closely together on the project, meeting every weekend to share coffee and discuss progress. “I admired minimalism already, but Hiep (the name of designer) urged me far more strongly toward it. I also wanted to use a lot of steel. It’s what was expected too because my year – the year I was born – is a metal year. Hiep guided me away from metal however, something most Vietnamese ppl would not allow”. The client now concedes that the designer was right and that the wood fosters welcome warmth in the home, and besides, there are one or two concessions to his love of steel, such as Le Corbusier chair. Wood is used extensively throughout the home, softening the concrete flooring and the colossal column that dominates at its core. Together they chose nose flute wood for its bright colour and, more practically, its anti-white ant properties.
From start to finish the project spanned three year. Over that time, the client and designer formed a tight friendship and unlikely design team, while the client’s wife, who initially sceptical about the plans, grew to love the house. “Now I can’t pick a favourite part”, she says, “If I lie down on the sofa, I feel like the sky is in the house. I also adore our bedroom and how the three outside the window is like a picture, but then I love our family room. It’s all perfect.”
