05005VN An Phu Plaza

Project size: 20,500 square meters

Construction cost: $10,000,000

Architect: SWA Vietnam Co., Ltd.

Civil & Structural Engineer: TBK Construction Consult Co., Ltd.

M & E engineer: VHT Engineering Co., Ltd.

Located on the lively thoroughfare of Ly Chinh Thang Street, this 25 storey mixed-use development incorporates an animated ground plane of retail units, a large semi-public coffee terrace, vehicle parking and a number of smaller landscaped zones. Two subterranean levels accommodate vehicle parking and building services while upper levels comprise two levels of office accommodation, transfer floor and 23 levels of apartment units.

As a result of the project’s central urban location, the architecture seeks to integrate on a larger metropolitan scale through the subtle, yet distinct, rhythm of the fenestration. The exterior façade treatment suggests a clear articulation of the buildings’ program, while holistically forming an assertive urban identity of its own, visually and morphologically interweaving itself carefully into the existing urban fabric of HCMC.

The main exterior architectural feature is the stone-clad ‘screen’ acting as a buffer protecting the residents from noise pollution and excessive solar radiation, but also visually concealing building services, private balconies and terraces.

At top level, glazed volumes define the luxurious penthouse apartments creating transparency towards the cityscape below and beyond, while on a more intimate scale allowing each unit to unfold towards large private exterior terraces, decks and balconies at multiple levels.