GAD Editorial · Published · · English study · Chinese summary · Study dated 2026-10-07
VTN Architects, also known as Vo Trong Nghia Architects, was founded by Vo Trong Nghia in 2006 and works from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Planting is a prominent part of its architectural vocabulary, but the more useful question is where that planting sits in relation to rooms, circulation and the ground. Farming Kindergarten and House for Trees show two different ways to make vegetation part of the building's section rather than an addition to its image.
Farming Kindergarten in Dong Nai was designed for the children of workers at an adjacent shoe factory. The practice's project record dates it to October 2013 and credits Vo Trong Nghia, Takashi Niwa and Masaaki Iwamoto as principal architects. Its continuous building forms three loops around courtyards. Above the occupied rooms, a roof garden provides outdoor space and a setting for learning about cultivation.
The geometry links several tasks. The loops define courtyards, the roof supplies another usable surface, and a broad stair connects the upper landscape to the ground. Planting is therefore encountered through everyday movement, rather than viewed only from a distant window. The narrow building strip also permits windows on opposing sides, supporting the cross-ventilation strategy described by the architects. Spatial organisation and environmental intention are developed together.
House for Trees in Ho Chi Minh City, dated April 2014 in the official record, works with smaller separated volumes. Five concrete boxes accommodate different domestic functions and support trees on their roofs. The project credits Vo Trong Nghia, Masaaki Iwamoto and Kosuke Nishijima as principal architects. The volumes act as substantial planting containers as well as rooms, so soil and vegetation are part of the architectural composition from the outset.
This is a different relationship between building and landscape from the kindergarten's continuous roof. The house distributes planting among distinct elements; the school links it along a larger connected surface. In both cases, the section has to account for the physical depth and weight of a growing medium. The green appearance is the visible consequence of an arrangement that must also support roots, water and access for care.
The House for Trees description identifies rainwater retention as an intended role of its thick roof-soil layers. That is a useful design proposition, but the ability of one house to retain water should not be translated automatically into a quantified reduction in neighbourhood flooding. The scale of the catchment, rainfall, drainage and maintenance would all matter. Likewise, a planted roof is one component of a building's environmental performance, not a complete assessment of it.
VTN's contribution is most productive when studied at this level of specificity. A roof can provide space for plants and learning; a sequence of planted volumes can give a dense house another relationship with the sky. Neither requires greenery to be treated as a purely visual theme. For designers working in tropical cities, the practical enquiry begins with the allocation of space, structure, water and long-term care. Those provisions determine whether planting becomes a lasting part of daily occupation.