Tropical Space, the prominent architecture firm was founded in 2012 by architects Trần Thị Ngụ Ngôn and Nguyễn Hải Long. They have their office based in Ho Chi Minh city specialized in master planning, urban design, landscape design, and interior design. Being placed in Southeast Asia, they have a deep-rooted cultural and climatic understanding which is portrayed in the design responses.

They strongly aspire to create environmentally friendly, sustainable structures with a conscious material selection that contemplates the needs of its users. The practice has majorly designed residential and commercial projects serving a variety of contexts. Following are the most notable ones: 

1. Termitary house

Year: 2014
Site area: 190 sq.m.
Building Area: 80 sq.m.
Materials: Baked Brick, Concrete, Terrazzo, Wood
Location: 582 Nguyen Phuoc Nguyen Street, An Khe Ward, Thanh Khe District, Da Nang City, Vietnam.

As the name indicates, its design was inspired by the ability of termites to build nests in the local area. Since the climate of the area varies extremely between sunny and rainy, also influenced by a lot of tropical heat every year, the architects designed the house by placing a cooking counter, a dining table, and an entertainment corner in the center of the space. 

The perforated baked brick facade and traditional materials of the area are used to build the house, keeping the house cool in the summer. Refurbished and old timber furniture gave the house its authentic character and reduced the total actual cost of the construction. 

2. Chicken Case

Year: 2017
Site area: 20m2
Materials: Steel, metal grill, cem-board
Location: My Hanh Nam, Ward, Duc Hoa District, Long An Province, Vietnam

The Chicken’s House aims to create a miniature social community for chickens and ducks. The design team wants to give them a large and safe space to form a mini-social community for the chickens, which is suitable for kids to play in. It is a 2mx10mx2m metal grill with hung cem board boxes connected with lightweight stairs allowing kids to come and play around. 

The design was inspired by an aged couple who wanted to raise some chickens in the garden.

3. LT House

Year: 2016
Site area: 66 m.sq
Building area: 108m.sq
Material: Bricks, concrete, timber
Location: Long Thanh, Dong Nai Province

This residential project was dedicated to the newlywed owners who wanted to have their own house on a low budget. This space was designed with more sharing areas to make users feel the direction of the wind, experiencing the shadows and light across the day. Simple furniture was made from raw materials on the site itself that resulted in affordable construction and created a beautiful interactive space.

4. Happy Box

Year: 2020
Area: 68 sq.m.
Material: wood, concrete
Location: Ta Quang Buu, District 8, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The Happy Box is a project for a kid client, asking to design a house. The concept was brought up by the team that aims to create an environment where children can be free to run around and do anything they want. It is a sculptural wooden box of dimension 3mx3mx2.2m designed with all the needed functions like working space, studying space, bed, kitchen, toilet connected both vertically and horizontally. 

To reduce the building work, the design keeps the site status as it was. It has space for everything so the house can be simple and clean all the time.