S Space / H&P Architects

Curated by Fernanda Castro

Architects: H&P Architects
Area: 300 m²
Year: 2017
Photographs:Nguyen TienThanh

Text description provided by the architects. Not quite far from a large polluted industrial park, the project is located in a new emerging urban area with a high construction density in Dong Van town, Ha Nam province. This is an open space for the community with its focus on cultural and artistic aspects on a periodical basis, among which coffee space is a daily activity.

S Space / H&P Architects - Chair, Brick — © Nguyen TienThanh

The design inspiration comes from the beauty of the national landscape of Kem Trong situated between the two provinces of Ha Nam and Ninh Binh where illegal rock mining is gradually turning this famous place into ruins. From this perspective, the design concept is to make use of waste (reusing scaffolding steel pipes, collecting rock debris from Kem Trong, discarded rocks from trade villages and construction sites) to express the treasure, nostalgia / regret of local people at the bygones of the lanscape.

"Mountains" are stone walls (0,4m thick, 3,4m high) which stand alone, zigzag intermittently and connect randomly to one another through doors and openings to enable users’ approach from various directions. The outer cover is the water surface; green trees alternate invarious positions with different elevations to regulate microclimate, create scenery and blur the outer-inner boundaries, bringing people closer to nature. Suspended above is a "Big cloud" consisting of lightweight roofs and mezzanine floors created by the continuous transfer of steel pipes (d = 4,2cm, previously used as construction scaffolding) together with bamboo sticks (roofing, flooring), all of which make a fragile but solid, elastic structure - in contrast to the thickness and tortuousness of the rock cave beneath. On top of the transparent polycarbonate roofing are sprinkler & mist sprayer to wash the roof and keep cool on hot summer days.

"Clouds and Mountains" presents primitive and dream like images butat the same time evoke strange feelings when experiencing it on and within: dead metal trees and heavy polluted smoke are gradually swallowing the town,...

Named as S Space (S = Save the Stone & Scaffolding), the project helps raise alert at unplanned exploitation of natural resources in Vietnam today, which have wiped out many rocks with historical and cultural values, resulting in a serious imbalance between the natural ecosystem and the human one. In this sense, the message S Space conveysis: "Architecture bears responsibility for the natural and social-cultural environment".