The clients want a spacious and convenient accommodation to visit every weekend. This will be the place where they have gatherings with friends and relatives. An open-space area but still maintain privacy if needed in a 75m2 apartment is a problem for us to solve.
The Weekend House
Structure
The traditional way of designing a flat contains many walls, which separate areas into different “rooms”, gradually building “walls” between family members and loosening their bonds.
The design offers various ways to separate areas in a more open-space approach, walls are eliminated and replaced with an innovative way of defining and marking different rooms by sets of wardrobes, shelves, pocket doors & levels. This embodies a link across the house, also with all interesting activities outside the windows, right at the moment stepping through the front door.
Walls are decorated with large shelves, which come in many sizes, these form up a “memory space” – where clients can keep gadgets, objects, and photos of family’s memories and journeys.
The old wall isolated 2 bedrooms is get rid of and replaced with a system of flexible baffles, the space can adapt to changing needs – whether clients need a spacious, open view or a quiet, peaceful and private room.
Especially, a slight change in levels is a technique to separate different areas without walls, which ensures the compatibility of the house.
Open space allows children to run around, have fun and play with toys, members of the family are able to take care of each other as well!
The kitchen and dining table are renovated with the intention to facilitate and enhance the cooking & eating experience of the family. The table is designed to be wider – so it can be used as a dining table and a counter, this helps solve the common problem of apartments – having tiny and inconvenient kitchens.
Materials
Whetstone and natural wood are the 2 main materials used in the house. Unlike the common way of completing wood materials, with this project, all wood materials are covered with finishing oil for wood as a final touch after the technical stage instead of PU paint. This helps to preserve the beauty of natural wood, friendly to human health, and at the same time minimizes negative impacts on the environment.
The cool feeling of whetstone and the warmth of wood complement each other, act as signs for different areas and bringing interesting experience in every step.
Articles mention The Weekend Apartment
Architects: ForestA + TAMA Architects
Designers: Trịnh Thu Thủy, Lê Bảo Quốc Minh, Nguyễn Bảo Tú
Year of commission: 2017 – Completion date: 2018
Total Area: 75m2
Address: Landmark 2 – Vinhomes Central Park – HCMC, Vietnam
Clients: Mr.Long – Mrs.Tú