Finalists
An Viet DungNational University of Civil Engineering(Department of Architecture and Urban Planning)
University of Brescia, Italy(Environmental Engineering Master Degree)
Finalist of World Architecture Festival in Berlin, ,Germany 2017
Chicago-USA KOI CAFE, ‘The Building of the Year 2018’
About Project
Balconies in Hanoi are neglected spaces as noises, dusts, air pollution, and high heat, create an unhealthy environment for its inhabitant. ECO- Balcony aims to act as a boundary between the atmospheric condition in Hanoi and the living space in the house allowing inhabitant to regain the use of an otherwise waste space.
Acting as filter that mitigate the issue relate with the atmosphere in the city, air filtering plants are place on the outside layer of the structure to facilitate a reduction of the pollution, dust and noises getting inside the house.
Those plants also help to screen out the direct Sunlight avoiding an increase of temperature of the internal spaces. This allow for a bigger balcony opening reducing the needs of artificial light during the day, common problem with most Vietnamese dark houses. Water features help by heat exchange to lower the temperature of hot air and decrease the uses of air-condition.
After more than 2 years of implementation, we have awakened more than 100 abandoned balconies in Hanoi City, our project has also received many prestigious awards such as the Shortlist at the World Architecture Festival- 2017 in Berlin-Germany, receive 6000 USD from INSPIRELY-2018 contest in Czech Republic, as well as being reported by CNN about ECO-Balcony.
This project reimagines how balcony spaces can help our larger ecological aims yet also beautify the city. It is small scale and practical and so potentially powerful and replicable. The jury gives a special commendation given the positive simplicity of the idea.