'A House in Quang Nam' reinvents the Vietnamese tube house

A House in Quang Nam is a variation of the traditional Vietnamese tube house, occupied by four generations of a family in the city of Hội An in Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province. The city is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and boasts a historic port district recognised as a well-preserved instance of a Southeast Asian trading port from the 15^th-19^th century. Arising in the late 19^th century as a response to limited building space, the tube house is a narrow, multi-storied building sandwiched between two others, reflecting the communal and industrial past of the city.

Lining the narrow streets of the ancient town, the houses showcase a stylistically eclectic tapestry of colonial and contemporary architecture, along with influences from Chinese architecture. Effectuated by a taxation policy, which assesses only the width of the first floor, the tube house is an instance of residential architecture that affords a spatial organisation conducive to accommodating multi-generational families.

Built on a piece of ancestral land, the house is shared by three households—the grandmother and the aunt, the parents and the two sons with their respective families. Instead of dividing the site to accommodate three tube houses, Le Quang Architects developed the plan around a central courtyard, with the public spaces spilling off its edges and the private spaces tucked away to the deep end of the house.

The street-facing entrance of the private residence recedes from the busy edge condition, shielded by an intermediary yard and front garden. Beyond this first courtyard, the house advances along its depth and has the largest footprint on the ground floor.

Community spaces, shared by the three households and a bedroom are enveloped around the central courtyard with two adjacent kitchens along the length to the west, the laundry, storage and toilet to the east and a living room to the north. The intimate, inward-looking spatial arrangement not only unites the public spaces of the house but also acts as a light well to bring in natural light to the interior spaces in a restrained site condition. The courtyard itself also affords a space for interactions, both within the families as well as with neighbours and guests.

Beyond the living room, a straight flight of steps leads to the mezzanine floor above simultaneously separating the public areas from the bedrooms behind. The mezzanine, where the footprint is withdrawn, accommodates an altar for ancestral worship and other events, a restroom and a library around the punctured central courtyard, and bedrooms above its counterparts on the ground floor. A smaller and more private third courtyard than the first two adds a ventilated gap between the site and the house behind it. The house, thus, gradually rises towards the north, along its longitudinal axis, a section which works in favour of allowing natural light into the deeper end of the house as well.

The courtyard house relies solely on ceramic bricks for construction, a material traditional to Quang Nam that ensures consistency with the area's heritage. The brick architecture not only promotes continuity but also aids in heat dispersion and keeping surfaces dry. Repurposing brick rubble from the original structure for landscaping not only reduces the cost of building but also reduces the carbon footprint. A sequence of two pitched roofs, which rise as the building rises, features Spanish barrel clay tiles that aid in channelling rainwater to the courtyard for harvesting. The building, thus, adapts passive solutions to tackle problems related to climate change.

A House in Quang Nam reinterprets the traditional vocabulary of Vietnamese architecture and tube houses, offering a spatial solution that can look to accommodate extended families within constricted urban conditions. While the organisation of the plan fosters familial bonds and community interactions, the staggering of the section optimises natural light and ventilation.