An authentic light to make the connection between nature and an artificial environment

Press View : Villa in Da Lat published in Japanese Magazine (n.420)

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The Villa project located in Da Lat (Vietnam) has been published in Shinkenchiku Magazine, Japan.

The setting in which the villa in DaLat is set is, as the architect himself points out, profoundly dichotomous. This is what undoubtedly makes the charm of the place.

The villa brings into existence in harmony worlds that oppose and yet complement each other: night and day, darkness and light, silence and noise, the artificial, human world on the one hand and nature on the other.

In terms of light, we have made the bold choice to choose qualitative natural light complemented with punctual artificial light in order to provide residents with a balance between the outside world and the one inside. We gave priority to the natural cycle of day and night and focused our efforts on the prevention and reduction of nocturnal light pollution.

“A two-family house under construction in Dalat, a suburb of Vietnam. A precast concrete skeleton that contains two conflicting places is inserted into the “artificial environment” where countless greenhouses cover the roughly chopped land endlessly.” – Shinkenchiku Magazine

/Text automatically translated from Japanese, please follow this link for access to the original version /

Dalat, a city on the outskirts of Vietnam with countless hills and lush pine forests that open up a divided context, is at the same time extremely artificial, with countless greenhouses covering the rough and chopped land endlessly. There is also an artificial environment, which is the result of numerous interventions that have been carried out vigorously in the context of culture, society, industry and politics.

On the other hand, when you actually walk in this group of greenhouses, the adjacent houses expand and daily furniture is scattered, laundry is dried, bonsai is lined up, and it is fragmentary. […] It is a Vietnamese city that has survived the history of division

In order to confront this “artificial environment” of Dalat as an architecture, a skeleton made of a set of precast concrete containing two conflicting places is inserted.  On the lower floors, which affirm the “artificial environment” and try to approach, the 240x360mm pillars that make up the 45-degree structural grid with open ends move the body toward the surrounding “artificial environment”. […] On the other hand, on the upper floor, which is confronted with a distance from the “artificial environment”, a group of 120 x 240 mm pillars that make up a 90-degree structural grid surrounded by four corners cover it semi-voluntarily. The vegetation and the body coexist statically.

Precast concrete was chosen because it has been widely established as a construction technique in Vietnam since modern times, and because it requires a massive skeleton to confront the fierce environment and history of Dalat. However, at the same time, it is also intended that each autonomous pillar appeals to the physicality of the subject who lives there. Since the modern era, the environment has many problems due to the layers of intermittent division, but by mobilizing the body, the skeleton of the building, and the vegetation that overflows inside and outside, we are aiming for a house that is firmly rooted in this area. .. (Toshiri Nishizawa)

To read kobi’s approach about the light for this Villa, follow the link : https://kobistudio.com/lighting-design-for-residential-space/

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