Mein Garten Showroom | Studio 102

Within the last few years, Hanoi has experienced rapid development, resulting in urban sprawl and many abandoned housing areas. This is not only the waste of environmental and financial resources, but also the causes of many social issues in term of neighborhood security and livability.

Mein Garten, a brand under  OLAD Jsc – Outdoor & Landscape Development Joint stock Company and supply-firm, is a design and consulting firm focusing on landscape architecture and horticulture. It is important to them to have an office which is opened as much as possible to the nature, and which bring refreshment and creative thinking for their staff.

When looking for a new office, also a showroom, Mein Garten has found a vacant twin house in Trung Hoa - Nhan Chinh New urban park. Instead of being a closed, air-conditioned standard office, this twin house offers a high potential to be come a new type of living – working space.

Starting with an unfinished building, the architect of the project has taken out some of the cover brick walls to create various semi-open space. There is no boundary between the inside and the outside. Plants are every where: in the garden, in the semi-open space on the ground floor, first floor, on the roof, on the walls…  The overall color theme with plants and white-painted walls brings a relaxing but creative atmosphere for the people in the office. Working space is not a sole desk, it could be at the terrace, next to the water feature, or at the veranda… It is an office which bring people closer to nature, closer to each other, and make them work more effectively.

The smart design with Durawood panels covering the overall building has effectively reduce the energy consumption of the building. The building use natural ventilation and lighting for most of the time. Together with the re-use of material, the cost for renovation of this office is very low.

Day by day, season by season, the plants continue to grow and change, giving the office a new look. This office, therefore, is not just a built object. It is living, like an organism.