recently shortlisted for the house category for the 2012 world architecture festival, the 'a21house' designed by vietnamese practice a21studĩo is a residence and office located ten minutes from the center of hochiminh city, vietnam. positioned upon a small 40-square meter plot, the polygonal shape only offers a 1.5 meter wide street frontage. situated at the end of a street,the site is bordered with the tall neighboring structures, making the task of generating an airy and illuminated home more challenging. envisioned as a cage for nature, a partially open-air structure resolves these constraints, capturing sunlight, wind and rainwater.
an acute building corner is chamfered at the roofline to form a triangular opening which filters daylight through the layers of interior spaces. the wood flooring dissolves into alternating sticks at the perimeter walls, allowing light to trickle downward and an averrhoa carambola tree to grow uninterrupted from ground level to the third storey. inhabitants can sit at their dining table and hear the breeze rustling through the leaves on the second floor. a wood stair and steel reinforcement railing leads to the second floor bathroom surfaced with traditional tilework. opposing the wooden bridge, a glass-enclosed bedroom views the top of the tree canopy and peers through the unsealed skylight towards the surrounding urban context.