Vo Trong Nghia Designs Apartments Covered in Bamboo

Vo Trong Nghia Architects has unveiled plans for a trio of 22-story apartment buildings to be built in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Bamboo and trees are interspersed between each floor of apartments, making these buildings unique from other housing in the area. The complexes will be connected by aerial bridges, giving every resident access to a lush rooftop garden. The proposed garden will feature full-size trees, pathways, and a series of pavilions that overlook the waterways and city below.

Each apartment has a personal balcony that contains planters filled with bamboo. This feature was included to give each apartment a natural sun-filtering screen—bamboo is ideal for controlling heat gain from the tropical sun, ultimately helping to monitor the amount of energy the buildings are consuming. The balconies function as personal elevated gardens for each residence, and the dense grass provides structural flexibility against storms, as well. Arches connecting the tension cables for the bridges will illuminate the building at night.

While other developments are expediting the loss of greenery in the city, the green bridge and green facade of this project are regarded as not only a dedication to the comfort of inhabitants, but also a contribution to the landscape, appearing as a green screen in the city.

The buildings on the 90,416-square-foot site will provide 720 homes. The housing scheme is designed to sit on a sliver of land between two rivers that wind through the Vietnam capitol to the East Vietnam Sea.

Vo Trong Nghia, based in Vietnam, specializes in replacing the greenery destroyed in the construction process, and has used similar materials in their other projects.