A Community Building by H&P Architects

In Vietnam as elsewhere, urbanization and accelerated population growth have led to a great demand for more living space. Many former single-storey houses with tiled roofs have been torn down, and the tiles from these buildings are considered construction waste that must be disposed of. With Ngói Space, which was conceived as a community building, H&P Architects have developed an inspiring solution for reusing this material, which is associated with so many memories.

The community building stands in Dong Anh, a small suburb on the outskirts of Hanoi. It is reminiscent of traditional Rong houses in the Vietnamese highlands, structures which are sacred to the Xo Dang people and symbolize the wealth of a village. H&P have interpreted a Rong house’s steeply rising roof, which extends nearly to ground level, as a permeable building shell made of artistically stacked roof tiles. These tiles are fixed to a steel framework and act as a sort of screen that is permeable to both light and air yet shelters the extensively glazed façade, which is set back by 2–3 m, from the afternoon sun. The four-storey building is based on a conventional skeleton of reinforced concrete. It is home to cafés on the ground floor and roof, seminar and exhibition rooms on the middle levels and a multipurpose space on the third upper storey. The buffer zone between the building shell and climate-efficient façade functions as a pleasantly temperate loggia.

In this experimental application of decommissioned roof tiles as elements used to create space, H&P Architects celebrate a form of sustainability that transfers the hidden values of the original buildings in a purposeful new function and thus reveals the past as a driver for the future.

Video of the community centre

Further information:

Team: Doan Thanh Ha ,Tran Ngoc Phuong, Luong Thi Ngoc Lan, Tran Van Duong, Nguyen Hai Hue, Ho Manh Cuong, Nguyen Van Thinh, Trinh Thi Thanh Huyen
Total area: 510 m²
Completion: January 2021