pluto, Author at ARCHITECTURE in NOTES

The Inner Court House

The street-facing walls of The Inner Court House have few openings. Most of the glazing faces a courtyard inside, giving two generations of one family an outlook away from the streets on either side of their corner plot. Plus Idea Studio completed the house in Phan Rang in 2025, where intense sun and high temperatures accompany strong coastal winds.

The court puts greenery beside the rooms and admits daylight through the centre. Openings at the middle and rear provide a route for breezes through the shared spaces and central void. The living room and kitchen occupy a continuous ground-floor area, with an open stair beside the living room. Above, three bedrooms face the courtyard through glazed doors; timber floors and fitted cabinetry distinguish these rooms from the shared level below.

Outside, exposed aggregate gives the walls a rough surface. Joints divide the large areas of render to accommodate movement and limit cracking, continuing around windows and ventilation openings. Deep recesses shelter the upper outdoor spaces, while the sloping roof follows the house around the corner.

Corner view of the house with a sloping roof and recessed balcony

Long street facade with controlled windows and ventilation openings

Aerial view of the house on its corner site

Recessed balcony above the entrance garage

Facade joints and a small ventilation opening beside roadside greenery

Roof opening with greenery above the street-facing windows

Sloping roof and upper windows facing the street

Timber-floored upper landing beside a glazed courtyard

Open stair and upper corridor beneath a high window

Courtyard tree outside a glazed bedroom door

Living room beneath the staircase with timber cabinetry

Upper utility area beside the courtyard void

Bedroom with timber flooring and full-height cabinetry

Bedroom facing the glazed inner courtyard

Bedroom chair beside the courtyard doors

Bathroom with a freestanding bath beside a garden window

October 25, 2026

Vinh Long House

Recycled bricks from Mang Thit’s brick-making village form the outer screen of Vinh Long House. Gaps in the terracotta admit air, and a space between the brickwork and inner glazing accommodates recessed balconies. Greenery sits along their edges, with rooms opening behind the shade of the screen.

NAQ Architecture completed the house in 2024 as a weekend home for a family based in Ho Chi Minh City. Its 5-by-20-metre plot has the narrow proportions of a tube house. A sheltered entrance court separates the living room from the street, and the interior continues toward a dining area and kitchen beneath a tall central void.

Rust-coloured stairs rise through this void with metal-mesh balustrades that leave views open between levels. A glazed rooflight admits daylight from above, with high-level ventilation openings beneath it. An upstairs sitting area faces the void, while bedrooms open toward the screened balconies.

Concrete ceilings remain exposed over timber furniture and pale tiled floors. As light passes through the brickwork, small patches of sun fall across the walls and floors behind it.

Terracotta brick facade lit from within at dusk

Street facade with a recessed balcony and perforated brick screen

Entrance gate and brick screen beneath trailing greenery

Reclaimed terracotta bricks arranged with open gaps

Brick-fronted house viewed across neighbouring grassland

Shaded entrance courtyard behind the brick screen

Living room looking towards the dining area

Living room opening onto the shaded entrance courtyard

Timber dining table beneath the tall central void

Kitchen and dining area beneath the upper walkway

Central staircase and upper walkway beneath the rooflight

Upper sitting room beside the rust-coloured stair

Upper walkway connecting the sitting room and bedroom

Staircase rising through the central rooflit void

Rust-coloured stair beside hanging woven lamps

Upper landing beneath the glazed rooflight

Bedroom with timber furniture and filtered sunlight

Bedroom opening onto the sheltered balcony

Bedroom chair beside the perforated terracotta screen

Sheltered balcony with greenery behind an open brick screen

Greenery and built-in seating on the balcony at dusk

Ground floor ventilation strategy drawing

First floor ventilation strategy drawing

October 25, 2026

TH+ House

The family living in TH House added to its home through a neighbouring plot only 2.5 metres wide. Their new kitchen connects directly to the older dining room, making the two buildings work together at ground level. ODDO architects completed the extension, TH+ House, in 2025, four years after the original house in Hanoi’s pedestrian alleys.

Building on the narrow plot meant working around an existing shared load-bearing wall. A red steel column runs from the ground floor to the fourth floor, with beams supporting the spaces around it. This concentrated structural line leaves room for thinner walls and larger openings. Its red surface remains visible as it passes through the interior.

Tea and reading areas occupy the upper levels alongside guest and family spaces. Narrow metal walkways cross internal voids; their perforated surfaces allow light through. Enclosed rooms offer privacy, while curved openings in timber partitions frame views across the shared areas.

Rooflights and voids admit daylight into the depth of the extension and provide routes for ventilation. Trees sit beside circulation spaces, and large windows maintain contact with the alley. At the top, a curved steel trellis encloses the terrace and supports climbing greenery.

Interior greenery beside the red steel column and timber floor

Red steel column between timber benches and an open stair

White metal walkway beside a timber wall with a curved opening

Kitchen and dining room beneath timber slats and exposed concrete

Narrow kitchen with timber cabinets and a red steel column

Dining table beside the kitchen and curved concrete ceiling

Red steel beam beneath timber slats beside a curved concrete slab

Reading area beside the red column and tall windows

Interior void connecting the kitchen and upper rooms

Red steel column and beam beneath an exposed concrete ceiling

Timber counter below a white metal walkway beside a tree

Upper walkway beside timber doors and indoor greenery

Small timber alcove with circular openings in the wall

Timber cabinetry and a curved mirror beside the bathroom

Roof terrace with greenery and a curved steel trellis

Overhead view of the roof terrace and curved red trellis

Aerial view of the narrow house and adjacent rooftops

Street-facing rooms and roof terrace above the alley

Site plan drawing with photographs of the surrounding alleys

Perspective section drawing showing the red steel structure

Concept drawing showing the house structure and stacked spaces

Urban context drawing with photographs and neighbourhood sketches

Interior collage drawing combining photographs and activity sketches

October 25, 2026

Calm Haven House

The kitchen at Calm Haven House is raised above the adjoining spaces, with red floor tiles and a lower slatted ceiling. Its position recalls the rear kitchens and verandas of rural Vietnamese homes. Large openings face a garden, and a separate ventilated cooking area in the backyard accommodates dishes with stronger aromas.

This is the rear of a house designed for two doctors preparing for their first child in Can Tho. ADA Design & Build completed it in 2025, responding to their wish for a place to recover from demanding work. From the garage, the ground floor continues through the living area and a courtyard to the kitchen and dining space. Changes in level and ceiling height mark the uses without enclosing them behind partitions.

A tree rises beside the courtyard stair, visible from the rooms and upper landings. White steps climb along a tall pale brick wall beneath a rooflight. Slender metal balustrades and timber handrails leave views open across the void, while green tiles line parts of the stairwell and recur on the balconies.

Upstairs, the main bedroom faces a recessed balcony with greenery between the glazing and the street. A separate study provides a place to work. A concealed passage leads to a room for quiet reflection, where exposed concrete sits behind a perforated screen. The roof terrace offers space to tend greenery and sit outdoors in the evening.

Upper landing beside the skylit stairwell

White staircase rising beside a tall pale brick wall

Living room with timber cabinetry and a brown sofa

Living room seating beside indoor greenery

Raised kitchen and dining area with red floor tiles

Quiet room with a perforated screen and exposed concrete ceiling

Staircase beneath a rooflight beside a pale masonry wall

Kitchen cabinetry and red floor tiles patterned by sunlight

Staircase beside a tree in the internal courtyard

Tall internal courtyard connecting the staircase and kitchen

Curved stair edge beside the raised kitchen

Courtyard tree beside the stair and kitchen island

Overhead view of the staircase and green tiled wall

Study with a timber desk and curved wall details

Quiet upper room with a raised timber platform

Curved green tiled wall beside the upper landing

Bedroom with green wardrobes and timber flooring

Bathroom vanity beside a glass-block partition

Open green entrance gates framing the living area

Balcony with trailing foliage and green tile cladding

View from the living room towards the courtyard and kitchen

Quiet room with a timber table beside a perforated screen

October 24, 2026

MS Collection Mosteiro de Arouca

The corridors of the former Monastery of Santa Maria de Arouca still lead to rooms along their original routes. Now used by hotel guests, the former cells retain their subdivisions with limited structural alteration. Stone door surrounds and dark timber ceilings remain visible in the passages; pale timber floors and restrained furnishings occupy the bedrooms.

MiMool Arquitectura & Interiores completed the conversion of the monastery’s south wing in 2025 for MS Collection Mosteiro de Arouca. Developed through Portugal’s REVIVE programme, the project extends beyond the main wing to former service buildings and the grounds.

Reception and shared sitting areas occupy the ground-floor arcades. Low upholstered furniture leaves views open beneath the white vaults, and a dark stone bar stands among exposed masonry columns. Lighting close to the stone picks out its joints and uneven surfaces. Narrow pebble beds surround the bases of several columns.

The ruined infirmary required a different intervention. A new spa volume rises above a glazed base that exposes the historic foundations and admits views of the grounds. Dark vertical cladding encloses its upper part. Inside, a broad curved ceiling covers the pool, with low glazing along the edges.

Other former working buildings retain their place within the garden. The apothecary now holds lounges connected to the restored orchard and productive garden; an agricultural outbuilding serves as a poolside bar. At the eastern boundary, a new building accommodates operational spaces and facilities including a gym and conference rooms. Parts are set below ground beneath a landscaped roof to reduce their presence beside the monastery.

Paths connect these buildings through grounds where water tanks, fountains and archaeological traces remain visible. The outdoor pool sits near the Silvares stream, reached along routes of stone paving and restored masonry.

Aerial view of the monastery hotel and its grounds in Arouca

Outdoor pool facing the monastery hotel and spa

Dark vertical cladding above the glazed base of the spa

Garden path between the spa and the historic stone building

Stone steps beneath a sequence of vaulted arches

Hotel bar beneath stone arches and white vaults

Dark stone bar counter beside a historic wooden wheel

Ground-floor arcade with the bar and lounge on either side

Vaulted passage with stone columns and timber doors

Stone column base bordered by dark pebbles

Stone doorway framing a white spiral staircase

White spiral staircase beside historic masonry

Overhead view of the illuminated spiral staircase

Long upper corridor beneath white vaults and stone arches

Stone ribs framing a white vaulted ceiling

Dark timber ceiling with recessed decorative panels

Timber door within a stone surround beside terracotta floor tiles

Stone doorway and arches beneath a dark timber ceiling

Upper corridor with stone arches and a timber ceiling

Guest room with a black four-poster bed and timber floor

Stone doorway opening into a guest room with a desk

Guest bed beneath a white panelled ceiling

Timber wardrobe and desk beneath a white ceiling

Guest room with pale walls and concealed ceiling lighting

Guest room with timber flooring and a stone-framed window

Four-poster bed beside a retained stone column

Freestanding bath beside a stone-framed window

Guest room beneath stone ribs with a window seat

Bed and arched mirror beside a stone column

Guest room desk and mirror beneath stone vault ribs

Bathroom doorway opening towards a guest room

Twin basins beneath a backlit mirror beside historic stonework

Four-poster bed beneath a white vault with stone ribs

Intersecting stone arches beneath restored white vaults

Upper hall with stone door surrounds and terracotta floor tiles

Covered opening between low buildings beside the garden

Garden path connecting the monastery and the new spa

Exterior stone staircase beside the glazed connection to the spa

Glazed corner and vertical cladding beside historic stonework

Lounge with stone walls and a dark timber ceiling

Washroom with timber doors and a backlit mirror

Stairway descending into the vaulted spa

Vaulted spa walkway leading towards the indoor pool

Indoor pool beneath a curved ceiling and central column

Swimmer beside the central column and low garden-facing glazing

Illuminated masonry beneath the spa's glazed base

Garden paths between the monastery and spa at dusk

View across the monastery garden towards the surrounding hills

Monastery grounds and illuminated paths after sunset

Historic stone water basin beside the illuminated spa

October 24, 2026

Terracotta Breath

A courtyard separates the two households at Terracotta Breath. The parents live at the front of the narrow plot in Son Tra, Da Nang, and their daughter at the rear. Both homes have their own ground-floor living area and kitchen, with the shared court supplying light and air between them.

The two staircases give a close view of how live out studio differentiated the homes, completed in 2024. At the front, clay-coloured render and timber cover a stair beside the parents’ seating area, with storage incorporated beneath its solid lower edge. It leads to an upstairs ceremonial room. At the rear, a folded steel stair with a rope balustrade leaves space for shelving and a television underneath.

Facing the central court, folding timber-framed windows open above a built-in bench in the daughter’s home. The parents’ living room looks instead toward an entrance garden sheltered by bamboo. Upstairs, a narrow balcony separates the ceremonial room’s glazing from a perforated brick facade. Sliding windows and pivoting shutters allow its occupants to adjust ventilation behind the screen.

Brick paving carries the exterior’s reddish colour into the courts. Clay-coloured render meets timber doors and cabinetry downstairs, while pale walls and timber floors mark the upper rooms. Small tiles cover kitchen splashbacks and bathroom walls, continuing the material changes at the scale of everyday use.

Terracotta Breath street facade with perforated brickwork and pivoting shutters

Brick screen above the shaded entrance courtyard

Kitchen sink and timber cabinets beside a courtyard window

Kitchen with timber cabinets and terracotta-coloured wall tiles

Kitchen counter and timber window overlooking the living room

Living room opening onto the entrance courtyard

Terracotta-coloured staircase above the living room seating

Sunlight on timber stair treads and a slender metal railing

Curved upper landing facing the perforated brick screen

Bedroom with a timber bed and courtyard-facing window

Bathroom basin beside small terracotta-coloured tiles

Brick courtyard paving and foliage beside a rendered wall

Rear living room with a steel staircase and courtyard window

Painted steel staircase with a knotted rope balustrade

Window seat beneath folding timber-framed glazing

Upper stairwell with a rope balustrade and high windows

October 24, 2026

Eagle

A woven bamboo shell rises around a circular garden at Eagle, known in Vietnamese as Đại Bàng. Its open crown leaves the trees visible above a path that curves through the enclosure. Designed by adrei studio in Tay Ho, Hanoi, the project places this nest-like structure beside a small house with a folded pale green roof.

At the entrance, stone walls border the path to a violet door. Inside the woven enclosure, narrow openings between the bamboo cast a web of shadows across the paving. Chairs and stools sit beside the central greenery, and climbing vegetation extends into the weave.

The house faces the garden through tall windows. Blue-grey walls meet a deep blue floor and a textured ceiling. Beside the glazing, a curved wall descends into a built-in seat, facing the bamboo shell outside.

The garden and its woven nest among low houses and distant towers

Woven nest with a planted centre beside the green roof

Folded green roof and the nest from above

Dry-stacked stone walls leading to a violet door

Woven arch over the path to the violet door

Light filtering through the woven branches

Room with blue-grey walls and a deep blue floor

Tall windows facing the nest from inside

The room at dusk looking out to the garden

The nest and green roof under an evening sky

Aerial view of the nest and the folded roof

Model seen from above with sand and dried flowers

October 23, 2026

Verdant Ridges

An I-shaped stage runs among the audience at Verdant Ridges, allowing actors to perform along its length. A column at its centre could not be removed under conservation rules, so Wutopia Lab retained it and clad it in black timber. The small theatre occupies Building No. 5 of a former silk weaving factory in Suzhou, adapted for performances and meetings in 2024.

Outside, green aluminium panels form a series of angular ridges around the old building. Four shades and thicknesses give the peaks depth, with V-shaped pieces resolving their corners. A metal-mesh layer stands in front of the solid panels, and a mountain-shaped opening marks the entrance. The references come from landscape painting and from Tang Bohu, the painter and poet associated with the surrounding historic quarter.

The interior uses black, white and grey against the colours of performers’ costumes. Acoustic panels and textured coatings carry vertical marks derived from ink-painting brushwork. A new mezzanine follows the inclined ground-floor walls, while the original concrete frame remains distinguishable from the additions.

Some seating can be converted to standing space. A ticket office and bar occupy one side of the stage, with dressing rooms on the other and a control room upstairs. The north side is set back beside a neighbouring fire station, leaving a sheltered gathering space under the eaves. An external stair leads to the roof, where a terrace sits between the metal peaks.

Green metal mountains behind the old concrete frame

The theatre among the rooftops of the old quarter

Corner of the building with green panels and concrete frame

Entrance steps beneath the cut-away mountain

Green panels and weathered concrete beam

Inclined green panels under the old frame

Front of the theatre with a tree and rooftop railing

Second-floor terrace among the green peaks

Black and grey interior with vertical texture

Inclined wall and column inside the theatre

Metal mesh mountain seen from above at the entrance

Detail of stacked green aluminium panels

Pale and dark green panels in vertical strips

Leaning green wall beside a concrete column

The brush-shaped column beside the green wall

Outside stair with views over the old quarter

October 22, 2026

Heart Fields

Doors hidden among the bookshelves at Heart Fields lead to four private stairs, each serving a guest room above. During the day, the ground floor operates as a village bookstore; at night, it becomes a lounge for those staying there. Wutopia Lab fitted the rooms and their separate access routes into a compact building in Suzhou, opened in February 2024.

The site previously held three abandoned houses around a courtyard. At the client’s request, the entrance house and the well behind it were kept. The remaining buildings were replaced, leaving the preserved house white and giving the new construction a dark exterior. A gap separates the staggered volumes.

A single-storey pitched-roof building contains a cafe and library. The second volume holds the bookstore and salon below the guest rooms, connected to the first by glazing. The ground floor opens through the buildings to the site, with a lightwell bringing daylight down into the shelves.

The two south-facing guest rooms have sloping terraces formed by cantilevered slabs. To the north, a balcony is recessed into the volume and left open toward the back of the site.

Dark gabled volumes with a single small window

The bookstore among village roofs from the air

Black and white volumes seen from above among trees

The new dark gables beside the preserved white house

Roof edges of the dark and white volumes

Courtyard in front of the preserved white house

The building in the village with a city skyline beyond

Dark roof and skylights over the white house

Library shelves rising beneath a skylight

Daylight falling from the light well onto the shelves

Guest room with a skylight above the bed

The building at the edge of the village fields

Aerial view of the black and white volumes

Concept sketch of the dark gables beside the old house

October 22, 2026

Mountain Muse Lodging & Nature

Four former house plots gave Mountain Muse Lodging & Nature an irregular boundary and a footprint much larger than its neighbours. Wutopia Lab broke the upper volume into angled surfaces and leaned the walls inward, reducing its apparent bulk along the village streets. Setbacks and terraces cut further into the mass, while a recess around a retained tree marks the entrance.

The family guesthouse opened in a lakeside village in Suzhou in June 2023. Several of the abandoned houses on the site had become unsafe. The brief called for guest accommodation with daylight, private entrances and generous interiors, within a plot closely surrounded by other homes.

A recessed black ground floor supports two pale beige storeys. The contrast was informed by René Magritte’s painting Le Calcul Mental, in which geometric solids appear suspended over a rural scene. Here, a stone-textured coating covers the faceted upper walls and the darker base.

Guest rooms combine three arrangements: linear rooms, four-square rooms and duplexes. Courtyards or terraces can be added to each type. On the western plot, portions of hollow-pattern brickwork were retained from two deteriorated houses; the kitchen and dining room occupy and adjoin these remains.

The inclined walls use lightweight blocks with continuous tie reinforcement to reduce the load on the cantilevers. This construction gives the large, angular outline a lighter infill within its structural frame.

Faceted white wall rising behind a bare tree

The guesthouse among village houses, seen from the air

The white mass above the village roofs and fields

Main entrance under the leaning upper walls

Entrance court beside the preserved tree

The faceted volume floating over a dark ground floor

New volume rising behind retained brick houses

Old plastered wall against the new faceted facade

The village at dusk with a distant city skyline across the lake

October 22, 2026

Shade and Breeze Pavilion

Orange fabric hangs between trees above a low, winding timber deck at Shade and Breeze Pavilion, originally named Bóng Gió. The temporary installation by adrei studio was made for the Hanoi Creative Design Festival 2026. Translucent strips overlap at different heights, letting the branches and patches of sky remain visible through and between them.

The deck curves around trunks and islands of grass, splitting into narrow routes before widening again. Its edges provide places to sit close to the ground. Above, ropes hold the fabric without a separate rigid roof frame, while the boards below follow the spaces left between the existing trees.

Orange canopies strung through the trees across the park

Winding deck beneath the fabric canopies

Light through orange fabric over the slatted deck

A canopy stretched from a large tree trunk

Deck curving around a tree under orange shade

Two canopies at different heights over the path

The deck splitting around islands of grass

Looking up through orange cloth to the sky

Canopies seen from across the open square

Visitors sitting on the edge of the deck

Study model with twigs and fabric strips

Model with tracing paper canopies between branches

October 22, 2026

Sadhu Lotte

Rows of arches extend into the dining rooms at Sadhu Lotte, a vegetarian restaurant by adrei studio in Lotte Mall West Lake, Hanoi. Pools of light mark the floor beneath each bay, and small illuminated niches terminate the long views through the interior.

Brick and roof-tile surfaces continue over the walls and vaults. Terracotta discs and fragments form bordered patterns across the floors, while bands of glazed teal tile wrap the lower parts of the arches. Photographs of construction show the individual pieces being laid and fitted to the curved surfaces.

At the mall corridor, a tiled canopy on timber brackets runs across the frontage. Stacked tiles and bricks surround the restaurant’s name, carrying the interior’s small-scale masonry detail to the entrance.

The shopfront under a canopy of curved roof tiles

Entrance wall of stacked old tiles around the Sadhu sign

Reception with a plant and earthen walls

Long arcade with a patterned terracotta floor

Arches and pools of light down the central gallery

Looking through a thick arch to the next bay

Teal-banded columns along the lit gallery

Vaulted bays seen across the dining room

Gallery of arches with a lit niche at the end

Vaulted room with a stained glass window

Sunlight on the floor through a row of arches

Arched doorway with a figure in the niche

Sequence of arches leading to a lit alcove

Pottery workshop where the terracotta pieces were made

A craftsman setting old roof tiles into the vault

A craftsman laying terracotta discs into the floor

October 22, 2026

Author: pluto

Newsletter