Vo Trong Nghia unveils tree-covered university in Vietnam

Vietnamese firm Vo Trong Nghia Architects has unveiled designs for a verdant university campus in Ho Chi Minh City, featuring tree-covered rooftops, balconies and a plant-filled courtyard.

The FPT University campus will occupy a 22,500-square-metre site among the skyscrapers of the southern Vietnamese city. It is Vo Trong Nghia Architects’ second project for the technology college, following another campus underway near Hanoi.

Pockets of planting will be dispersed throughout the staggered floors of the building, framing the expansive courtyard at its centre. The number of floors will increase towards the corners of the plot and fall in the flanks to create a gently undulating outline that counters the city’s typically vertical blocks.

The architects claim the greenery will provide shade and improve air quality, reducing the campus’ reliance on air conditioning. They expect these semi-outdoor spaces to provide meeting, lunching and events areas for some of the 5,000 students that can occupy the campus at any one time.

Vertical gardens are proving a popular way to offset energy consumption and fit more green space into densely populated cities around the world. Beijing firm Penda recently released visuals of its leafy housing scheme in Vijayawada, India, while a pair of skyscrapers in Milan by Boeri Studio feature one hectare of planting.