Vietnamese studio Vo Trong Nghia Architects has accomplished City Farming Workplace, its personal head workplace in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, making a concrete-framed constructing coated in a “vertical farm” of greens, fruits and herbs.
Situated on a nook web site within the metropolis’s Thu Duc district, the City Farming Workplace was designed to be emblematic of the plant-filled, low-energy structure for which Vo Trong Nghia Architects is understood.
Alongside the workplace, the observe has additionally constructed a model of its low-cost housing prototype, S Home, designed to resist typhoons and earthquakes and first unveiled in 2012.
“Underneath fast urbanisation, cities in Vietnam have diverged removed from their origins as sprawling tropical forests,” defined the observe. “The shortage of inexperienced causes varied social issues equivalent to air air pollution, floods and the warmth island impact.”
“On this context, new generations in city areas are shedding their reference to nature, [and] rising droughts, floods and salinisation jeopardise meals provides,” it continued.
The core of the workplace constructing is constructed utilizing an uncovered concrete body, whereas the planters themselves are supported by a shelving-like exterior construction of skinny metal, permitting them to be flexibly rearranged as crops develop or swapped out fully.
Fully protecting the constructing’s glazed southern aspect, the wall of crops acts to filter daylight and air, stopping overheating and making a shaded microclimate for the workplace interiors.
Inside, workspaces are organised round a central atrium, and full-height sliding glass doorways present entry onto balcony areas for shifting or harvesting from the planters, with a rooftop backyard offering additional house for rising crops.
“Along with the roof backyard and floor, the system supplies as much as 190 per cent of inexperienced ratio to the positioning space, which is equal to 1.1 tons of harvest,” defined the observe.
“[The vegetation] is irrigated with saved rainwater, whereas evaporation cools the air,” it continued.
The concrete construction has been left fully uncovered internally, complemented by darkish wooden furnishings and minimalist mild fittings to supply a distinction to the intense inexperienced of the planted facade.
To permit the workplace areas to be as open as doable, the raise and stair core has been pushed to the northern nook of the constructing, the place brick partitions with small openings for air flow have been left naked to permit for the potential of future rear extensions.
Architect Vo Trong Nghia based his eponymous observe in 2006, and it has since grow to be recognized for its explorations of low-energy structure, usually incorporating crops and bamboo into its designs.
Different tasks not too long ago accomplished by the studio embody a bamboo welcome centre for a resort on the island of Phu Quoc, and a house in Bat Trang wrapped by a perforated brick wall and a sequence of elevated backyard areas.
The images is by Hiroyuki Oki.
