Project: Tranquille House
Architects: Limdim House Studio
Lead Architect: Tran Ngo Chi Mai
Design Team: Tran Ngo Chi Mai, Ho Nguyen Dang Khoa, Hoang Dao Khanh Linh, Doan Minh Huan
Engineering: Doan Minh Huan
Location: Hue, Vietnam
Area: 100 m2
Year: 2022
Photographs: Do Sy
In Asian culture, filial piety is a beautiful custom. This project is such an example of it. The Tranquille house was built by the children for their parents to enjoy old age and gardening. Because it is a house for the elderly, the design aims to be minimalist, convenient, and bring a cozy rustic feel. The main style in the house is the traditional designs expressed through the system of Clay Plain Tiles roof, a local ancient kind of Hue city, called “Liệt” tiles, and glass louvers window.
With an area of 100 m2, we only arranged the ground floor area of about 50m2 and spent the rest of the land growing flowers and vegetables. We completed the design from the fence gate so that when people enter the house, they would feel the intimate, reminiscent of childhood with the houses in the countryside by using clay plain tiles for the gate as well as blocks of baked bricks. The principal color is the brown color of clay, which also brings the feeling of restfulness.
For Vietnamese, especially Hue people, ancestor worship has been very much appreciated. Therefore, we cleverly arranged the outdoor altar as well as the indoor altar to fit the relatively small space of the house. The outdoor altar was designed in sync with the architecture of the house with a roof made of clay plain tiles as well as using block bricks to get light.
For adding the rustic appeal to the house, we used materials such as stone, wood, concrete, and especially clay plain tile to make roofing – a material that brings a lot of nostalgia. In order to achieve the best possible finish, we reused old bricks removed from old houses, this helped bring the color of time to the new house and thereby helped the elderly owner of the house feel familiar as soon as they moved in.
With a small space mainly for an old couple, we designed the open plan living room – kitchen while a kitchen island that is both a place to cook and a place to dine. It created a more generous space, making the house light-filled. We also arranged many cabinets with wood louvers, creating ventilation but still discreet to store many items, this greatly contributes to creating an airy space for the house.
In addition, with the glass wood louvers on the back of the house and the terracotta block creating the effect in the toilet area, we wanted to bring the best air circulation to the building as well as the necessary privacy. And finally, as the name of this project, tranquility is what we hope the two elderly owners of this house enjoy, thereby reflecting on the past life together.
