Fact-File of Highly-Curved Bamboo Roof:
- Principal Architects: Vo Trong Nghia, Nguyen Tat Dat.
- Design Team: Le Hoang Tuyet Ngoc.
- Office Credit: VTN Architects ( Vo Trong Nghia Architects )
- Status: September 2020. Built.
- Program: Cemetery Facility.
- Location: Vietnam.
- Footprint: 588 sq.m
- Ground Floor Area: 500 sq.m
- Bamboo Roof Contractor: VTN Architects.
The Bureau:
Stationed in Ho Chi Minh City, VTN Architects assimilates universally classical building techniques with complex bamboo joinery. This office with a bamboo roof bolsters the use of perforated blocks, cooling water systems, shaded terraces, flat roofs camouflaged with prefabricated housing, and urban farms to personify the perfect examples of green towers, parks, and urban spatial configurations. VTN Architects slices pieces of local, vernacular, and modern materials over lemonade of contemporary design to sip and drool over the etiquettes of urban domains and world peace. Thus, work and programs fused with evergreen planted walls, hanging vines, weathered rocky patches, and sunken landscape briefs are evident. VTN Architects is a professional member of the World Architecture Committee that adopts the practice of natural and economical vernacular materials like bamboo, thatch, and bricks. This firm is also the proud recipient of the World Architecture Award of the 34th cycle with the Ha residence in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
The Foreword:
Huong An Vein Cemetery park is the first model of its kind that fuses ecology with service briefs, located in the central region of Hoa village in the Huong An Ward town. This model with the bamboo roof is what promises ornamentation, ecological security, and awestruck architecture, still blessed with the prayers of customary practices with public faiths and beliefs. Floating on four naturally drafted lakes and fenced in the mountains, this spiritual tourist eco-park details the petals of architecture meticulously. With a firm perspective of joy after bidding a farewell to the world, this eco-park transitioned into a cemetery, enjoying its secludedness and solidarity with flowers, blessings, and rays of consoling sunshine. The welcoming house for this cemetery park, designed by the VTN Architects, restricts itself to the theme of the park and the 38ha of green space confined with the house to create an effortless tranquil of bamboo architecture.
Revolutionizing Sustainability And Vernacularism:
In Vietnam, not only does the bamboo grow generously, promptly, and in a pocket-friendly way, but also the culms cost as little as a single dollar each. Vietnam has a tropical climate coupled with high temperature and humidity that lifts the bamboo growth, a vital forest resource. Thus, VTN Architects aimed to revolutionize the construction of bamboo, not just meagerly for a fad but also to employ locally abundant, green architecture, nature’s gift. VTN Architects encourage the use of two types of bamboo, one that can bend to enhance curvatures and one that is straight. The bendable variety called Tam Vang locally has its scientific Latin name as Oliveri Gamble. The straight bamboo going by the name Dendrocalamus Barbatus in Latin is called Luong in the local language.
Treating the tallest grass:
At VTN Architects, bamboo soaked in water accelerates the aging process of the grass to make it compatible for construction in 3-6 months. As the chemical constituents of the bamboo transition, the bamboo roots, and hence protect it from the attacks of insects and beetles as they no longer prefer the toughened, hard grass. Thus, influenced by the traditional knowledge of Vietnamese craft people, similarly crafting bamboo baskets and chopsticks, VTN Architects used water passages to treat the tallest grass for this project. The minute one evacuates the bamboo from the water one, notes its extremely foul smell and dry skin due to the escaped oil. Thus VTN Architects resolve to smoke the grass for around two weeks to coat the outside and to dry it out, replacing the oil and solvents obliterated. Hence, this smoked bamboo can now be secured for around 30-40 years and marks its presence on the structure.
The Project of Visiting Center with Bamboo Roof:
This potent, meandering, and winded bamboo structure by VTN Architects personifies the timid, soft, and traditionally classical architectural footprint of the city. Striking low-hanging eaves not only create a dramatic play of shadows but also protects the interior of the visiting center from harsh and direct sunlight and rains, thus, allowing the space to interact with and open to its surroundings and landscape context. These eaves positioned to embrace the openness and welcoming effect to the structure, also aid in averaging out the human scale for the project. This conversant purview of the natural surroundings bestows respect, obligation, and recognition to those who have bid a farewell. These emotions carefully worked out with the selection of natural and locally sourced material palettes are sourced from bamboo, thatch, and perforated bricks. The structure, acclimatized to welcome airflow and flow with the play of air circulation in the interiors, waives out the need for air conditioning and artificial lighting within the complex. The structure amounts to a single unique model in the sectional view, amassed successively, promptly, and economically in a low budget on site.
The alluring spline shape of the roof devises up a smooth ceiling in the interiors and masks the complexity of the roof structure to devise a more peaceful and tranquil space. Thus, only the visitors sitting underneath can comprehend the heaviness and bulky appearance of the bold roof design. This form-active structure can thwart axial forces, compression, and tension. In addition to hot and cold pressing, the natural curve of the bamboo proves advantageous for the form and the joinery enhanced by smaller bamboo culms. Critical thinking, conclusion, and research by VTN Architects boosts the minimal usage or zero usage of chemical ingredients for bamboo treatment to minimize the negative impact on the environment.
