Behind facades lie vibrant lives, where the exterior melds with the interior, transforming neglected urban spaces into captivating residences. In cities around the world, architects, engineers and designers face the challenge of integrating new buildings into existing urban landscapes with limited space. Many architects are now embracing this concept, expanding their designs beyond conventional boundaries and transforming small city lots into layered and interconnected living spaces.
The city of Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán in Mexico, has experienced a significant architectural boom in recent years due to emerging talent that has gained recognition through awards and biennials across the country. With its tropical climate, the architecture in this region responds to specific geographical conditions, making it one of the most visited destinations. Mérida is a city that was built upon the remnants of the Mayan city called T'Ho and is composed of a rich culture that combines different moments in history. As a result, the contemporary architecture of this region incorporates traditional elements such as vaults, lattices, and sustainable traditional finishes that are reinterpreted to create a new language that reflects the present moment in which they were constructed.
Walking down the streets of cities like Hanoi and Saigon in Vietnam, you might encounter houses with surprisingly narrow facades in contrast to the stacking of three to five floors, with windows for ventilation and natural light only on the front facade. These are the famous traditional Tube Houses. According to ancient popular culture, this type of housing emerged due to property taxes being based on the width of the facade, but the true reason is to optimize land use, allowing a larger number of plots in the same square.
However, this legacy is now being recreated in contemporary designs by Vietnamese architects. Old facades give way to innovative solutions featuring atriums for natural lighting and ventilation, courtyards and interior gardens, greenery incorporated into different environments, split-levels, etc., allowing for high-quality spaces. With that in mind, we have put together a selection of Tube Houses, together with their respective section drawings. Check out below:
