Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia
A dozen layers of concrete planters create a vertical garden on the facade of this house in Ho Chi Minh City by Vietnamese architects Vo Trong Nghia.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_1.jpg)
Built for a couple and one of their mothers, the building is 20m deep but just 4m wide, typical of the narrow but long 'tube houses' common in Vietnam.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_2.jpg)
Concrete planters span between the side walls to cover the front and back facades, and are spaced according to the height of the plants.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_14.jpg)
At the rear of the house, an exterior staircase is positioned between the planters and the back wall, while glazing separates the front of the house from the plants.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_13.jpg)
Automatic irrigation pipes fitted inside the planters allow for easy watering and maintenance.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_6.jpg)
A rooftop garden provides shelter from the noise and pollution of the streets below.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_7.jpg)
Inside the house, there are few partition walls in order to maximise views of the green facades and encourage ventilation. The rooflights also allow natural light to penetrate.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_8.jpg)
Sunlight pokes through the leaves of the plants to cast dappled shadows on the granite walls.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_10.jpg)
Photographs are by Hiroyuki Oki.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_11.jpg)
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Here's some more text from the architects:
Project Name: Stacking Green
Location: Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam
Completion: 2011
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_15.jpg)
Architect’s Name: Vo Trong Nghia + Daisuke Sanuki + Shunri Nishizawa
Contractor: Thuan Viet Company + Wind and water House JSC.
Floor area: 250m2 (4 floors)
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_12.jpg)
Whoever wanders around Saigon, a chaotic city with the highest density of population in the world, can easily find flower-pots cramped and displayed here and there all around the streets.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_5.jpg)
This interesting custom has formed the character of Saigon over a long period of time and Saigonese love their life with a large variety of tropical plants and flowers in their balconies, courtyards and streets.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_18.jpg)
The house, designed for a thirty-year-old couple and their mother, is a typical tube house constructed on the plot 4m wide and 20m deep.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_19.jpg)
The front and back facades are entirely composed of layers of concrete planters cantilevered from two side walls.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_4.jpg)
The distance between the planters and the height of the planters are adjusted according to the height of the plants, which varies from 25 cm to 40 cm.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_28.gif)
To water plants and for easy maintenance, we use the automatic irrigation pipes inside the planters.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_29.gif)
We named this tropical, unique and green house “Stacking Green” because its façades filled with vigorous and vital greenery.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_25.gif)
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The house structure is an RC frame structure widely used in Vietnam. The partition walls are very few in order to keep interior fluency and view of green façades from every point of the house.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_21.gif)
During the day we get the varying light with the time of day trimmed by the top-light in the centre.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_22.gif)
In the morning and the afternoon, the sunlight enters through the amount of leafs on both façades, creating beautiful shadow effects on the granite walls, which are composed of strictly stacked 2cm stones.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_23.gif)
The green façade and roof top garden protect its inhabitants from the direct sunlight, street noise and pollution. Furthermore, natural ventilation through the façades and 2 top-lights allow this house to save a big energy in a harsh climate in Saigon.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_24.gif)
Concerning these ecological approaches, we referred a lot to the bioclimatic principles of traditional Vietnamese courtyard house.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_26.gif)
In this chaotic city, we defined the full variety of surrounding greenery as a context of Saigon and applied to the main concept of this house.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_27.gif)
Although the Saigon townscape is getting uniformed and boring under the influence of the furious urban sprawl of recent years, we intended this house to inspire people to re-define and re-increase the greenery as the character of this city.
![Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia Stacking Green by Vo Trong Nghia](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2012/07/dezeen_Stacking-Green-by-Vo-Trong-Nghia_20.jpg)
“Stacking Green” is just one small house, but it is generated from the context of Saigon. We hope that “Stacking Green” makes Saigon become more distinguished and fascinating with much more tropical greenery in the future.