Brick Cave

The house stands in a suburban commune undergoing rapid urbanisation. The Vietnamese design team set out to make an artificial place close to a natural one, shaped like a cave.

Two layers of brick wall meet and enclose the house, with planting and vegetables set between them. The double wall filters harsh western sun, dust and noise while letting in light, rain and wind where needed, and the outer wall tilts inward at different angles to frame the landscape and let people sense time and weather through shadow and air.

A chain of spaces with random openings moves from open and public to closed and private and back, blurring the line between house and street, people and nature. Brick, a familiar local material laid by hand, gives corners of yard, strips of garden and patches of sky.