Vo Trong Nghia Architects has completed a series of six triangular concrete pavilions connected by a low block of office spaces for Vietnamese telecommunications group Viettel.
Ho-Chi Minh City-based Vo Trong Nghia Architects arranged the large concrete pavilions, which have V-shaped sections, in to a zigzag formation. The tall concrete slabs are connected by a single-storey office block.
The building has been designed to present a high wall to the nearby city and the southern sun, but open out with planted roof terraces to an adjacent lake and green spaces to the north.
"The walls create an open book shape, filled with nature," explained Vo Trong Nghia Architects, "allowing people to relax and concentrate".
"The high V-shaped walls are designed to cut out harsh sunlight, as well as present a strong, impressive facade to visitors."
Located 20 miles from from Hanoi in the Thạch Thất district , the new complex sits at the edge of the Viettel Academy Educational Centre, which was also designed by Vo Trong Nghia Architects.
The building houses facilities to train the company's new engineers.
The spaces are designed to be a retreat from the cities that many employees will be used to, providing a space for off-site meetings and "boot camps" surrounded by green landscape.
Vo Trong Nghia Architects' design aims to relate interior spaces directly to the exterior, with glazed meeting rooms accessed via gaps created between the high concrete walls.
These concrete slabs create sheltered, sky-lit internal courtyards or bright, north-facing external terraces potted with trees.
Patterns of small square openings in these V-shaped walls allow some direct sunlight onto the garden terraces, and slices out of their points - which face directly south – allow a controlled amount of light onto roof gardens and into the double-height lobby of the central pavilion.
Beneath the high concrete walls is a low-level block connecting each distinct form, weaving between each pavilion and providing access up to the gardens above.
To the south, this low block is fronted with an arcade shaded by concrete columns, and to the north the meeting rooms themselves overlook the lake with full-height glazing, with large meeting tables mirroring the shape of the building itself.
Stairs provide access to between the different levels of terrace, the highest being with those overlooking the lake featuring a stepped profile.
Vo Trong Nghia established his studio in 2006. It frequently pushes nature to the forefront of its schemes, with the recent Ha House featuring living spaces linked by garden terraces, and a rammed earth house close to Hanoi designed with a roof covered in fruit trees.
Photography is by Vo Trong Nghia Architects / Hiroyuki Oki
Project credits:
Architect firm: VTN Architects (Vo Trong Nghia Architects)
Principal architect: Vo Trong Nghia
Design team: Marek Obtulovic, Nguyen Van Thu
Supervision: Nguyen Hoang Son, Doan Huu Chinh
Client: Viettel Corporation
Contractor: Delta Corp