A21 Studio

9 Spa

9 SPA

A21 Studio

ARCHITECTS
A21studio

PHOTOGRAPHS
Hiroyuki Oki, Nam Phan, A21 Studio

AREA
450 M²

YEAR
2013

LOCATION
Nha Trang

CATEGORY
Hotels, Spa

Text description provided by architect.

9 spa is a set of nine hotel houses with spas, mud and mineral baths together with a small bar and restaurant.

9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki
9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki

The buildings are perched in the folds of halfway terrace up to a rock hill, which makes the hotels hideaway from the eventful area downhill.

Using indigenous building techniques and materials, and adopting local custom to managing the project, 90 village masons, carpenters and craft persons were enlisted to build the hotels in a period of 9 months.

9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki
9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki

The project was designed as a combination of dry-stacked stone with wood structure and coconut leaves, quarried right on the site.

The houses are set up in different specific angles and placed separately by a distance, considered as an entrance lobby for each house, to not only let rain water run down easily from top of the mountain but also allow ventilation to the below area.

9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki
9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki

Moreover, the roof structure is constructed in a traditional way by mortise and tenon joint techniques.

Above this wooden structure, the roof is a combination of 3 layers, 20 mm thick wood panels, which gives an aesthetic look to ceiling and links all beams together, water proof membrane and 30 mm coconut leaves, respectively.

9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki
9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki

Besides, the project also makes use of old furniture from nearby buildings such as doors, tables and chairs or patterned tiles, giving the buildings a distinctive look, the beauty or serenity of old items that comes with age.

The bar, with less than a dozen seats, is above from the ground, thereby linking the outside space to the interior and offering a new viewpoint to the customers, while not touching to existing nature.

In other words, by any means necessary, nature is treated as the core value, that its beauty can be contemplated at every corner of the project.

9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki
9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki

In conclusion, nine hotel houses are linked by a continuous wooden roof, reflecting its surround environment and landscape.

By using local materials as rock and wood together with adopting old furniture, 9 spa gives an extraordinary value to the existing project.


9 Spa
© Hiroyuki Oki


9 Spa
Plan
9 Spa
Plan


9 Spa
Section
9 Spa
Elevation


9 Spa
Diagram
9 Spa
Model

A21 Studio
T +84 283 8411603
A21 Studio
158/14 Nguyen Van Dau, Binh Thanh District, Saigon, Vietnam