Tile Nest

The house stands in a new urban area near a former cemetery, where the old soil layer had to be dug out before building. The Vietnamese design team turned the excavation into part of the house, giving it distinctive spaces and the chance to use the stable temperature of the ground.

Named Tile Nest, it blends a nest of nooks reaching up toward the light with an ancient pit house partly hidden below ground. The outer shell is made of many roof tiles hung as if flying, recalling stacked roofs and sunshades of traditional houses, porous outside and spacious inside.

A middle layer of green balconies at different heights offers views and tempers the microclimate. Familiar tiles, used here in an unusual way, can be seen through and touched, casting flower-like patterns of sunlight and letting wind and the scent of plants pass through.