Vietnamese studio MM++ Architects has squeezed a contemporary shophouse into a 4-metre-wide internet site in Ho Chi Minh City, with a facade that opens and closes like a giant shutter.
Named Townhouse with a Folding-up Shutter, the four-storey residence will take its cues from classic shophouses – a common creating typology in Southeast Asia that combines a workplace with a residence.
MM++ Architects aimed to update this developing type, generating a 21st-century residence that opens itself out to the neighbourhood by day, but closes itself up at evening to supply privacy for its occupants.
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“This task proposes a minimalistic and contemporary strategy of the standard shophouse typology,” explained Michael Charruault, 1 of the two architects that can make up the studio.
“Like a typical Vietnamese townhouse, the front component of the ground floor is possibly dedicated to enterprise exercise during the day, totally open onto the sidewalk, but it’s also utilised as the owner’s residence,” he mentioned.
A huge wooden facade that opens like a massive window shutter permits this transformation. By day, it folds up to reveal the interior, and by night it is pulled back down. Its louvred surface enables ventilation to penetrate the building when closed.
“The classic shutters, typical of the Southeast Asian colonial architecture, have been turned into a much more industrial design and style single timber shutter, with a folding-up opening program,” added the architect.
The building’s interior responds to its narrow width. The ground floor becomes a flexible open-strategy room, while the three upper amounts house bedrooms that each face a full-height toplit courtyard in direction of the back of the site.
Every bedroom also has its personal bathroom, accessed by means of bridges that span the courtyard. In this way, the house is capable to comfortably accommodate two or three different generations of a single family.
“The developing is narrow but it is a extremely common size for a Vietnamese city,” Charruault told Dezeen.
“We often deal with this configuration,” he continued. “The challenge is to deliver in normal lighting and ventilation, for that reason, open-program layouts and skylights are great options for the residing spaces.”
The supplies chosen for the developing were intended to supply a mixture of minimalistic and industrial styles.
Externally, the walls surrounding the shutter facade are rendered white, while the interior attributes exposed concrete and blockwork, and the staircase combines steel and wood.
The bedroom on the uppermost floor opens out to a roof terrace, permitting residents to observe comings and goings on the hectic street below. Steel beams frame the area, supplying a framework that might sooner or later turn out to be covered with climbing plants.
MM++ Architects is led by Michael Charruault and Mỹ An Pham Thi, with earlier tasks such as a property with an open-air residing space and yet another with pivoting doors.
They are not the 1st architects to rethink the classic shophouse typology – other examples contain a periscope-shaped workplace in Singapore and a boutique hotel in Malaysia.
Photography is by Hiroyuki Oki.
Ground floor program – click for more substantial image 
Very first floor strategy – click for greater image 
2nd floor prepare – click for greater image 
Third floor prepare – click for more substantial picture 
Roof strategy – click for more substantial picture 
Part – click for greater image 
