Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology
Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 2; August, 2014 pp. 41-46
© Krishi Sanskriti Publications
http://www.krishisanskriti.org/jceet.html
Lessons from Climatic Response in
Vietnamese Vernacular House
Nguyen-Hoang-Long Truong
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Architecture, Seoul National University, Korea
Abstract: Vernacular house is regarded as a climate responsive
architecture resulting from the great numbers of ancestor’s
quintessence through centuries of inhabitation. Accumulated
over thousands of years, climatic response principles implied in
Vietnamese vernacular house are the most valuable experiences
indicating the identities of eco-friendly behavior of Vietnamese.
These principles might be valuable lessons for orienting the today
residential architecture towards sustainability. This paper
systematically analyses the eight cases of vernacular houses
located in rural lowland of the two climatic zones: the north and
central Vietnam. The paper then synthesizes the general features
of the Vietnamese vernacular house that responding to the
immediate climatic conditions. From that, lessons are drawn in
five categories: site planning, building design, materiality,
landscaping, and water conservation.
Keywords: housing design; climatic response; climate responsive
architecture; Vietnamese vernacular house
1. INTRODUCTION
Today, sustainability is a dominant theme of all debates in
finding housing solutions for the well-known global warming
issues. Vietnamese contemporary house has been largely
appearing as kind of ‘representative architecture’, as concept
of Coch (1998, p. 67), which pays much attention to impress
observers rather than responding to the nearby climatic
conditions. Therefore, finding lessons underlying from
vernacular houses is essential for Vietnam developing the
present housing towards sustainability.
Vernacular architecture, as named by Bernard Rudofsky
“architecture without architects”, has evolved from generation
to generation through trials and errors to respond to their
needs and values. Vietnamese vernacular inhabitants
accumulated a great of unique features formed over the
process of inhabiting and adapting to the immediate nature.
Four-thousand-year of appearance, Vietnam firmly stems in
irrigated rice-based culture that reflects profoundly in
Vietnamese consciousness of the relationship between human
and nature, playing a vital role in mental life of Vietnamese
peasants.
Coch (1998, p. 71) reveals that climate is a main factor of the
various driven forces, whether social-cultural, economic,
religious or material resources and constructive technique and
so forth, generating the forms of the architecture [1]. Potential
importance of this factor is relatively dependent on the
application of technology. In case of vernacular architecture
with low-tech condition, the climate becomes dominant force
defining the pattern of building. Thus, as long as the climate is
varied from a place to another, the vernacular building appears
to be diversified as response to the environmental condition.
Among regions in Vietnam, northern lowland is the most
cradle of irrigated rice-based culture, which has the longest
history of formation and developing. Northern and central
coastal lowland together possess most valuable vernacular
distinctions of Vietnam. Northern house contains the original
quintessence while central house inherits and develops
specific characters to adapt with locally extreme conditions.
This paper exploring the climatic responsive characteristics of
Vietnamese vernacular houses in the two climatic zones: the
northern and central lowland, where Vietnamese vernacular
houses have been most concentrated. This paper
systematically analyses the eight cases of vernacular houses.
The paper then synthesizes the general features of the
Vietnamese vernacular house that responding to the immediate
climatic conditions. From that, lessons are drawn in five
categories: site planning, building design, materiality,
landscaping, and water conservation.
2. METHODS
2.1 Climatic and Cultural Settings
Vietnam generally has a hot and humid tropical monsoon
climate. Vietnam territory has a long S-shaped located entirely
in the tropical belt, stretching from 8o30’N and 23o22’N,
which defines that Vietnam receives a high solar radiation all
year round and the sun mainly moves on the southern sky.
Long coastline in the east brings in the southeast monsoon
with high humidity, which is a potential source of passive
cooling. Meanwhile, Truong Son mountain ranges, running
along the west side, generate foehn effect causing extreme
hot-dry southwest monsoon to the central lowland and driving
overheating in inhabitation. In this paper, two specific areas
where vernacular houses have largely gathered are concerned,
the northern and central lowland.
42
According to climatic data from Vietnam Ministry of
Construction (2009), the northern lowland obviously has four
seasons with short cold winter. The temperature rarely falls
below 5oC and occasionally reaches to 40oC. Rainfall and rain
intensity are quite intensive. Cold wind protection in winter is
a specific requirement of this region.
The central coastal lowland has a tropical climate with
monsoons. The lowest temperatures cannot go beyond 10oC
and the highest temperatures can exceed 40oC. In summer,
hot-dry monsoon brings in extreme hot summer while part of
the northern area is still affected by the cold wind in winter.
Rainfall and rain intensity are quite large and typhoons
frequently strike to this area from June to December.
Overheating prevention and typhoon resistance are most
crucial in this area.
Fig. 5 Locations of two areas of research
Vietnam is a multiethnic country with 54 officially recognized
ethnic groups. Among these, the Kinh is the most dominant
group inhabiting in the low-lying deltas and coastal plains [3].
Original Kinh’s culture derived from irrigated rice-based Red
River civilization that existed along the basin of the Red River
Delta in northern Vietnam since the 2nd century BC. In the
consciousness of the Kinh people, the relationship between
humans and nature is inseparable, “man and nature as friends”.
People have a tendency to respect nature and act in harmony
with nature [3].
2.2 Outline of Investigation
Eight cases of vernacular rural house scattered in the northern
and central lowland areas are the main objects of this study.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology
Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 2; August, 2014
Nguyen-Hoang-Long Truong
The eight cases involve four in the northern area and four in
the central area. All the cases are analyzed in the group to find
out the general characteristics and unique features of each
zone as well.
Data of housing were compiled from various sources and self-
site visits. Table 1 indicates detailed drawings of eight cases of
study involving both presently existent and inexistent houses.
All houses are provided with a site plan, main block detailed
plan, elevation, section and the actual image of the site if
applicable.
3. MAIN FINDINGS
3.1 General Features
Both northern and central lowland vernacular houses reveal
the general features that responding to local climate in a lot of
aspects as below:
3.1.1 Housing Layout
Orienting buildings are extremely vital when peasants start
setting up a plan of a house. Building is often located in the
highest level of the land to welcome the cool wind and resist
the damp. Vietnamese proverb said that “A house naturally
should face south just as a man should marry a woman” [4] to
impress the South is the best direction for constructing a
house. Accordingly, the main block frequently directs into the
south to welcome the cool prevailing wind while prevents the
house from solar radiation from the east and west and a cold
wind from the north in winter (A, C, G and H).
In most of the eight cases, the housing complex is a
combination of blocks divided into two parts: the main part
(living room and bedrooms) and secondary part (kitchen,
sheds, sub-economic working place). The whole is not
compact form or consecutive connection but a combination of
various separate facilities including the main block, side
block, toilets, courtyard, ponds, gardens, cattle sheds and so
forth. This composition results from the desire of natural
ventilation for adaptation to the dominant overheating in a
tropical climate.
The composition of facilities such as courtyards, water tanks,
ponds, gardens properly connects with the immediate
environment. The courtyard is an important element
constituting charming beauty and sense of the house. Locating
in front of the main block, courtyard works as a buffer zone
linking the main block to other facilities: the side block, the
cattle shed and garden and creating the transition from indoor
to outdoor environment. The courtyard also silently maintains
the spirits of the house. This place functions as family’s
outdoor living space at moonlit nights, as well as extending
space of the main block in special ceremonies (weddings,
funerals, death anniversary) [4, 5].
Lessons from Climatic Response in Vietnamese Vernacular House 43

Table 4 Eight cases of Vietnamese vernacular house

Northern lowland
1
A - Typical house B - Giap’s house2 C - Quan Nhan house3 D - Khu’s house4

Central lowland
E - Di Luan house5 F - Ngu’s house6 G - Anh’s house7 H - My Hoa house8

Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology

Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 2; August, 2014
44
3.1.2 Building Design
In all of the eight cases, the building itself has features
responding to climate through a combination of the veranda
spaces, insulation walls and ventilated doors and windows.
Veranda is located in front side functions as a transitional
space between the courtyard and interior space, providing
buffer space protecting interior space from the sun rays.
Veranda is often equipped with bamboo screen (A, C, D and
E) for resisting the solar radiation and glare reflected from the
courtyard. Walls are mostly constructed by rammed mud (A, E
and H) or thick brick wall (B, C, D, F and G) offering
insulation. Facing with tropical climate with monsoons,
natural ventilation is extremely important to dissipate the heat
in the interior as well as reducing the humidity. Doors and
windows are arranged in the way of opening to nature and
welcoming prevailing wind for cooling the interior space and
allowing air circulation across the house.
3.1.3 Material Usage
Materials applied in all of the eight cases are mostly nature-
based lightweight rod structure, exploited in the adjacent site
including bamboo trees, timbers, thatch, rattan, rammed mud,
brick and so forth. Most of these materials originate from
natural rain forests, self-planted garden or wastes of
agriculture works. Lightweight material offers great potential
for insulation against the sun and extreme climate. Low-class
people often utilize low-cost materials such as bamboo and
rattan, going with a mud wall and thatch roof. Beside
functions as primary structure, bamboo frame are also applied
in rammed mud wall and thatched roof with high insulation
(A, E and H). Higher-class have a tendency to use timber for
frames (trusses, columns, and beams) with brick walls, clay-
tile roof. Hardwood is popular in vernacular house offering
more durable and aesthetic building. Under the hand of
Vietnamese ancestors, raw timber was processed with a
unique form of trusses columns, beams, girders sustained from
storms and strong winds.
In addition, materials enable the house acting friendly with the
environment. The wooden structure of the house could be
disassembled and transferred to another place or reused for
further needs. Besides, when no more use, organic building
materials provide biodegradable characters so that they would
quickly melt down to the earth, thus recovering substances as
part of the cycle of nature.
3.1.4 Gardens and Landscape
In northern house, garden takes a role as climatic mitigation,
sources of daily green vegetables, seasonal fruits, construction
timbers and landscaping. The scale of gardens is dependent on
the scale of the house. The large house has garden
surroundings while in the small house the garden locates just
beyond the courtyard confronting the main building [4].
Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology
Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 2; August, 2014
Nguyen-Hoang-Long Truong
Garden organization reveals the precision in responding with
natural conditions. Nguyen (2012) implies that there are often
four types of gardens in northern rural house. Center garden is
flowers and bonsais surrounding the courtyard, which plays a
role as a landscape of the main area. The eastern garden is a
place for planting vegetable and areca-palms, which shade the
main blocks on high-level sunlight while allowing the
prevailing wind on the low-level.
The west garden is a place for fruit timber trees which, at the
same time, shade the building from the afternoon sunlight. The
fourth garden is the north located in the back of the main
block where bananas are often planted for preventing
northeast monsoon cold wind from entering internal space.
Traditional experience, “betel-nuts in the front, banana in the
back”, reflects the experience in response to nature for
optimizing the microclimate, cooling in summer and cold
prevention in winter.
3.1.5 Water Conservation
Responding to the high rainfall condition, drainage and
rainwater collecting systems are adapted to the house in forms
of the water tank and the water pond. Water tank is often
located in a discreet corner of the yard or in the middle of the
main house and the kitchen [4] collecting water from the
building’s roof systems. The water pond often stands beside
the garden, collecting surface water which is the sources of
nutritive for rearing fish. Water system helps supplying water
for domestic use, regulating the microclimate and facilitating
rainwater runoff and fish farming as well.
3.2 Unique Features
Vernacular houses in central lowland inherited most features
of northern houses, while offering its own characters
consistent with immediate climate. This region has a more
severe climate with extremely hot and dry summer and annual
typhoon striking along the coastline. Because of that,
vernacular houses have a lot unique character as a result of
responding to the climate.
3.2.1 Two-layer Roof
My Hoa house (case H) indicates the unique characters in its
roof. This house possesses two layers of roofing in different
materials. The lower is constructed by dry rammed mud with
bamboo framing while the upper is made of thatch. Since the
roof area is the largest surface exposed to the sun, this feature
shows the unique way in responding to extremely warm
climate of the central lowland area. Two layers provide
distinct conducted ratios acting as heat insulation against the
direct sunlight.
Beside insulation function, the roof serves as fire protector as
well. The mud layer is perfect protector for the space below in
Lessons from Climatic Response in Vietnamese Vernacular House 45

the case of the upper thatch roof being in fire. This is very
important since the main frame of lower part of the house is
expensive timbers integrated with high art of traditional
sculpture. Moreover, the low-heavy mud layer of roof is ideal
protector of upper thatch roof from destruction by typhoon.
3.2.2 Typhoon Resistant Form
Typhoon is also a factor defining the form of the vernacular
house in the central lowland. The house’s form is evidently
different between the north and the center due to resistance
from the typhoon. The northern house (B, C and D) has a high
gable roof while the center house (F, G and H) has a low
hipped roof that is optimal for typhoon resistance. In addition,
compared to northern houses, the central houses (F, G and H)
possess short spreading shape, thick roof, robust wooden
frame, thick wall and columns with short bays, which are all
the features essential for preventing typhoon.
3.3 Lessons from Climatic Response in Vietnamese
Vernacular House
Through interpretation of Vietnamese vernacular house of the
two regions in the northern and central lowland of Vietnam,
lessons could be drawn for applying climatic responsive
design into contemporary housing. Lessons include site
planning, building design, water conservation, materiality and
landscaping.
3.3.1 Site Planning
• Relying on topography and arranging elements
respectably: high level for buildings, medium for
courtyard and gardens and lowest for the pond.
• Orienting south direction for all main blocks
3.3.2. Building Design
• Composing group of blocks in a fragmented pattern. The
main block should be stretched east-west direction and
main façade should face south.
• Providing a buffer space between interior and exterior
likes veranda space equipped with shading devices.
• Utilizing doors and windows with ventilated bars to
maximize the air circulation across spaces.
• Applying two-layer roof for enhancing the insulation of
the roof
• Organic-based materials are favorable in term of high
renewable potential.
• Utilizing materials those are easily reused or recycled
such as wood, stone.
3.3.4 Landscaping
• The landscape should be made available for the mutual
relationship of buildings and nature.
• Implementing the proverb “betel-nuts in the front, banana
in the back.”
• Utilizing water surfaces as both landscape scenes and
evaporated cooling source.
3.3.5 Water Conservation
• Providing ponds for collecting surface water runoff and
reusing for cooling space.
• Maintaining exposed soil for storm water penetration.
4. CONCLUSION
Vietnamese vernacular house has revealed great characters of
climatic response. Today those characters again show valuable
lessons for designing climate responsive architecture. The
results of this study include lessons in site planning, building
design, materiality, landscaping and water conservation.
Contemporary residential architecture should be applied these
lessons for developing in a sustainable way while maintaining
the sense of traditional identity.
Notes & Figure Sources
1
Image extracted from [7]
2
Image and drawings extracted from [8]
3
Drawings extracted from [9]
4
Drawings from Institute for Conservation of Monuments
of Vietnam
5
Drawings extracted from [10]; the image is just for
illustrative purpose and extracted from web link
(http://dantri.com.vn/van-hoa/phuc-dung-3-can-nha-
hang-xom-cua-bac-ho-873209.htm) retrieved on July 2nd,
2014
6&7
Images and drawings from Quang Nam Center of
Heritage Conservation
8
Drawings extracted from [10]

• Applying the proper form for typhoon resistance Fig.1. Image edited with original extracted from
www.vi.wikipedia.org.
3.3.3 Materiality
References
• Utilizing local materials that come from the available
sources as near as possible.
[1] Coch, H. Bioclimatism in vernacular architecture. Renewable
• Lightweight materials are desirable in term of efficient and Sustainable Energy Reviews 1998; 2(1), 67-87
insulation.

Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology

Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 2; August, 2014
46 Nguyen-Hoang-Long Truong

[2] Vietnam Ministry of Construction. QCVN 02: 2009/BXD
Vietnam building code - natural physical & climatic data for
construction. Hanoi. 2009.
[3] Cuc, L. T. Vietnam: Traditional cultural concepts of human
relations with the natural environment. Asian Geographer 1999;
18(1-2), 67-74
[4] Phan, H. L., Tu, C., Nguyen, D. N., & ... The traditional village
in Vietnam. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers. 1993.
[5] Hoang, H. T. Humid tropical architecture (Vietnamese ed.).
Hanoi: Xay Dung Publisher. 2002.
[6] Nguyen, D. T. The value of traditional architecture: New rural
house in the northern delta Vietnam Architecture Journal (in
Vietnamese) 2012; (3.2012 )
[7] Institute, A. R. Architecture and tropical climate in Vietnam
(Vietnamese ed.). Hanoi: Xay Dung Publisher. 1997.
[8] Research Institute of Architecture. Conservation of the
traditional Vietnamese village, architecture and landscape.
Hanoi: Research Institute of Architecture, . 2003.
[9] Gourou, P. Les paysans du delta tonkinois. Etude de géographie
humaine: Éd. d’Art et d’Histoire, Publication de l’École
française d’Extrême-Orient. 1936.
[10] Gourou, P. Esquisse d'une etude de l'habitation annamite dans
l'annam seftentrional et central du Thanh Hoa au Binh Dinh.
Paris: : Les Editions d'art et d'historie. 1936.

Journal of Civil Engineering and Environmental Technology

Print ISSN: 2349-8404; Online ISSN: 2349-879X; Volume 1, Number 2; August, 2014