Recycled metal sheeting and repurposed wood and glass form Tree House by the Lake, a home in Vietnam designed by local studio H2.
Located on the shores of Da Bang Lake in the Chau Duc District in Vietnam, the home was commissioned by an elderly couple and designed by H2 to bring them and their grandchildren closer to nature.
It is enveloped by a forest and was built from local scrap materials to reduce its impact on the surrounding landscape.
“The aim of the project is to create a house that blends in with the woods,” H2 told Dezeen.
“The building has a rustic, idyllic appearance of old materials, along with the interior and everything in the house is very simple and light, to make room for sunlight, wind and trees to play,” they continued.
Shaded by the forest canopy, the home is intended to resemble a tree house, with its main form raised up from the ground to catch the cool breeze from the lake.
Trees are also integrated directly into the design of the home, growing through its terrace, voids and roof via openings.
Simple in form, the two-storey Tree House by the Lake has a glazed lower storey with pivoting panes that open out onto the garden and surrounding landscape.
The upper storey oversails the lower level with a rectangular volume clad in reclaimed corrugated iron, giving the impression it is “floating” above it.
Inside, the lower storey contains the living room with a tree growing through the floor and anchoring the space. The surrounding greenery helps softens its material palette of glass, smooth concrete and corrugated iron.
A spiral staircase leads to the upper storey and a generous double-height wooden walkway links the bedrooms at either end of the house.
The walkway is an indoor-outdoor space with a glazed roof. An elliptical window sits at the centre of the walkway and acts as a window seat overlooking the forest.
Punctuated by two voids, the walkway also enables trees to grow on one side. On the other, netting allows the owner’s grandchildren to play and stand in the void.
The bedrooms at the ends of the walkway are rendered with white walls and have expansive windows with large terraces overlooking the lake and the forest.
Tree House by the Lake’s bathroom sits in a raised “leaf hut” incorporated within a curved recess of the top floor. Clad in dried thatch, its shape is inspired by the region’s vernacular architecture.
As well as using scrap corrugated iron, the structural frame of the house is made from old zinc collected near the construction site. Many wood and glass elements were also repurposed from scrap.
“When their life is over, they will be dismantled to return to the ‘scrap’ loop and reused for another purpose, and will return the inherent peace of the land as if the building did not exist,” H2 explained.
H2 is an architecture and construction studio based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Other residential projects in Vietnam recently featured on Dezeen include a concrete-framed house on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City by SDA and a family house with an oversized terracotta tiled roof by Ra.atelier and Ngo + Pasierbinski.
The photography is by Dũng Huỳnh.
