Amid growing climate threat, Vietnam’s architects turn to tradition
- - Amid growing climate threat, Vietnam’s architects turn to tradition
Faye Bradley, CNNAugust 28, 2025 at 4:10 AM
The perforated brick walls of Terra Cotta Studio in Dien Phuong, a flood-prone village in Vietnam, allow river water to flow through without damaging the structure. - Oki Hiroyuki
EDITOR’S NOTE: Design for Impact is a series spotlighting innovative solutions for communities affected by the climate crisis, natural disasters and other humanitarian emergencies.
Before sunrise in Dien Phuong, Vietnam, clay artists set up their workbenches beneath swaying bamboo by the Thu Bon River, shaping ceramic works to the sound of birdsong. Each October, when the river swells with rainwater, workers pause, move their tools and wares away, and only return once the waters recede.
Inspired by the rhythm of the rainy season, Vietnamese architecture firm Tropical Space opened a flood-resistant studio for local artist Le Huc Da, dubbed Terra Cotta Studio, in 2016. Each year, the monsoon waters consume the lower reaches of the striking cube-shaped structure — but rather than sweeping it away, the rising tide flows gently through its perforated brick walls. The studio’s lattice-brick design also harnesses airflow and shade to withstand central Vietnam’s unforgiving climate.
In 2023, the architects expanded the project with Terra Cotta Workshop, a neighboring facility featuring studio space for other local artists, as well as a large kiln and visitor center. Inside, artisans store their work on 6.5-foot‑high platforms, above the highest flood levels seen in the village this century. The workshops’ electric wiring was installed three feet above the ground, and equipment can be moved safely to high shelves during monsoons.
“We did not design the structure to resist or oppose the water,” Tropical Space’s co-founder, Nguyen Hai Long, said of the original studio building in an email interview. “Instead, it stands there and quietly observes the rise and fall of the river.”
Inside, the perforated brick walls provide shade while encouraging airflow. - Oki Hiroyuki
The studio is used by local artist Le Huc Da to create clay sculptures and pottery. - Oki Hiroyuki
Nguyen is part of a new generation of architects in the country, turning to local materials and time-honored building techniques — not only the distinctive brickwork but also stilted foundations and floating bamboo platforms — as enduring tools of climate resilience. He said the designs of Terra Cotta Studio and Workshop were influenced by the region’s traditional merchants’ houses, which often survived seasonal floods thanks to their perforated walls.
“If we live in harmony with the natural order, we recognize both its limits and its gifts,” Nguyen said. Floods, he added, bring not just destruction but also more fertile land and raw materials. “Without a deep connection to the land, we might miss nature’s anger, its joy or its subtle changes.”
On the climate front line
With over 2,000 miles of coastline and low‑lying river deltas, Vietnam is consistently ranked among the world’s most climate‑vulnerable nations.
The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery says that more than 70% of the country’s population faces regular exposure to “natural hazards” including typhoons, floods and salt‑water intrusion. In 2020 alone, the effects of the climate crisis — ranging from rising sea‑levels to intensified storms — cost Vietnam an estimated $10 billion, or 3.2% of its GDP, according to the World Bank Group.
The United Nations Development Programme estimates 40% of the Mekong Delta, home to some 18 million people, will be submerged by 2100.
A prototype from H&P Architects demonstrates how floating homes could be deployed in the flood-prone Mekong Delta. - Le Minh Hoang
Anchored to the riverbed, the home can rise and fall with the tides — even during heavy storms. - Le Minh Hoang
Amid these mounting threats, Hanoi-based H&P Architects is reimagining buildings as living, breathing entities that rise and fall with the water — anchored structures, secured to the riverbed with stakes and ropes.
The firm’s Floating Bamboo House prototype offers a modular solution for the Mekong Delta’s flood-prone communities. Solid-core bamboo poles form a lightweight yet sturdy triangular frame, buoyed by repurposed plastic barrels. A generous overhanging roof collects rainwater and supports solar panels, providing energy and water reserves if nearby roads temporarily disappear underwater.
A system of flexible doors, which can be easily opened or closed depending on the conditions, keep the home well-ventilated in dry weather and securely sealed during storms. They also give the house a distinctive character — like “bright flowers standing resiliently amid seasonal floods,” said H&P Architects’ founder and principal architect, Doan Thanh Ha, by email.
The door system of the Floating Bamboo House prototype allows for natural ventilation, but can be closed to protect the home during storms. - Le Minh Hoang
The concept was initially sketched in 2015 and realized as a full-scale prototype in 2022. Efforts to roll out the homes have thus far been constrained by Vietnam’s construction laws, which do not recognize bamboo as a permanent construction material and offer no clear path for permitting homes built on water, according to Ha.
Despite these challenges, Ha believes the design “addresses the scenario” of a 1-meter (3.3-foot) sea-level rise. Built in just six weeks, by Ha and three young architects, the prototype also offers a model for rapid deployment; the low-cost materials, including pressed bamboo sheets and recycled oil barrels, totaled just $5,000.
Ha described his floating house as “a practical alternative for millions of low-income households, enabling them to quickly build safe, stable shelter themselves — and to better prepare for even the worst effects of climate change.” With skilled labor, they could be constructed in as little as two weeks, he added.
Flexible bamboo
Tropical storms are another growing threat in Vietnam, which can experience several in a single year. Climate data suggests the storms are getting stronger, and the country’s architects are increasingly looking to mitigate the risk posed by powerful winds.
Completed in 2021, Casamia Community House was designed to last "hundreds of years," according to VTN Architects. - Ori Hiroyuki
In Cam Thanh village, near the tourist hotspot of Hoi An, the Casamia Community House rises on a concrete plinth above a tidal river. Designed by VTN Architects, a firm founded by one of Vietnam’s most celebrated contemporary architects, Vo Trong Nghia, the community hub was made from 22 bamboo arch trusses that form a 29-foot-high vaulted canopy able to deflect strong winds.
Bamboo is known for its flexibility, allowing the structure’s frame to bend and sway in high winds. The building’s thatched roof is meanwhile reinforced with a layer of wire netting, providing extra protection by shielding the interior from harsh natural elements. The structure withstood the devastating 2020 typhoon season, during which more than a dozen storms hit the country. Among them was Typhoon Molave, which Vietnamese officials at the time described as one of the worst typhoons to strike the country in two decades.
Casamia Community House features a vaulted bamboo canopy that has withstood tropical cyclones. - Ori Hiroyuki
“Bamboo really harmonizes with the weather, especially in hot, humid climates like Vietnam’s,” said Nghia, who founded VTN Architects in 2006, in a phone interview. “For restaurants near the ocean or community spaces, bamboo should be used more often. It works well, and it’s culturally familiar.”
Around 350 miles away at HippoFarm, an eco-tourism resort near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based T3 Architects took a different approach: using rice-husk insulation and recycled steel horse boxes to raise the main dormitory building above flood lines. The rice husk, which is mixed with diatomaceous earth — a porous material consisting of fossilised diatoms — provides thermal insulation, repels pests and resists humidity.
The design draws on various traditional Vietnamese building principles, such as wide roof overhangs that protect facades from sun and rain, and cross-ventilation with openings on opposing walls to enhance airflow. The architects also looked to local materials, like regionally sourced bricks, sand, lime and bamboo.
T3 Architects raised its HippoFarm dormitory building above the flood line. - Herve Gouband/Alisa Production
“Reusing existing materials is part of our frugal approach to do more with less,” said Charles Gallavardin, co-founder and general director of T3 Architects, over email. “By addressing escalating climate challenges — including frequent heatwaves, sudden storms and worsening floods — HippoFarm offers a resilient, low-carbon response to Vietnam’s warming climate.”
Local solutions, global vision
These architectural solutions, rooted in centuries of climate adaptation, may eventually have an impact beyond Vietnam. H&P Architects says it has fielded queries for its floating bamboo houses from disaster-prone communities across Asia and beyond. When Ha originally envisaged the flood-resilient homes, he was only thinking “about local needs,” the architect said, adding: “But after the project was completed, queries came in from places like Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, the Philippines, India, China and even the United States.”
For now, the project remains a prototype — the houses are not yet being manufactured for sale. But should he ever deploy them overseas, Ha emphasizes the importance of local context. “It’s essential to understand the specific natural and socio-cultural conditions of a community before applying any model.” While some European countries, like the Netherlands and Denmark, have already developed floating housing strategies, Ha believes his prototype could be easily adapted in places that haven’t. Where bamboo isn’t available, local timber or even repurposed steel scaffolding can be used, he said.
VTN’s Nghia has meanwhile been commissioned to design several major bamboo projects outside Vietnam, including a large-scale restaurant in Xiamen, China. The bamboo poles were soaked in water and smoked before use, a traditional Vietnamese treatment that increases the material’s durability and can last up to half a century, the architect said. The treatment seemingly proved effective: “It was hit by strong weather, but it’s still OK,” Nghia said of the restaurant.
Nghia has completed several other bamboo projects in China, as well as a serene bamboo pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018. He said he is also exploring projects in Myanmar and India.
But while bamboo is suited to many global contexts, regulatory barriers are often prohibitive — especially in the West. The UK’s Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) describes bamboo as a “compelling alternative to carbon-intensive materials,” but attributes its slow adoption in Western construction to its status as a non-traditional material, scarcity in local markets and skepticism within the industry (for one, there are concerns that bamboo is naturally flammable, though this risk can be controlled through flame retardants and other treatments.)
To date, only eight countries have established national building codes for bamboo, with the United States being the sole Western nation on that list, according to ICE.
“Anywhere in the world could use bamboo — the big issue is building permission,” Nghia said. “We can combine bamboo with timber or steel to meet building codes, but keep bamboo as the main material.”
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