Project Name: Vesp House

Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Architecture Practice: Story Architecture

Total Floor Area: 160 m² (1,722 sq ft)

Completion: 2025

Photography: Quang Dam

Design Features: Nestled within the dense urban fabric of Ho Chi Minh City, the 160-square-metre Vesp House by Story Architecture is a deeply personal dwelling that transforms the nostalgia of a lifelong passion into inhabited space. Designed for a young man with a profound love for vintage Vespa motorcycles, the house does not merely shelter its occupants — it holds their memories, habits, and aspirations within its walls. A front yard is carved out of the tight site to provide the homeowner with a place to care for and display his beloved Vespas, anchoring a private emotional narrative at the very threshold of the home.

The project’s defining spatial gesture is a central atrium void that stretches from the ground-floor kitchen and dining area upward through the roof, functioning simultaneously as a light well and social spine. Corridors, bedroom windows, and balconies on every floor open toward this shared void, forging a quiet but persistent visual and emotional bond between multiple generations living under one roof: the homeowner, his wife, parents, grandmother, and younger sister. The kitchen and dining table are conceived as the primary anchors of collective life, and the open section ensures that the activity of the family resonates through the entire house.

At the top of the house, the master bedroom is conceived as a sanctuary of gentle solitude. A large glass window frames a panoramic view across neighbouring rooftops toward the open sky, while a mango tree that has grown on the land for many years provides a natural point of continuity between the built and the organic. The door frame is modelled on the entry of a rural hut, evoking the simple joy the homeowner once found waking in a tent during Vespa road trips across Vietnam and opening the flap to the landscape beyond. A private balcony adjoining the bedroom is designed as a contemplative retreat for quiet observation of nature from above.

Formally, the architecture draws its curves and soft lines directly from the Vespa’s iconic silhouette. Both the exterior massing and the interior joinery follow a language of gentle arcs that lend the building a warmth and coherence rooted in personal iconography. Muted cement tones paired with natural timber finishes reinforce a nostalgic, unhurried quality throughout the interiors, echoing the rhythm of the open road the homeowner once knew.

Vesp House ultimately demonstrates that the most resonant domestic architecture is not about spectacle but about the careful translation of a life lived into the spaces that sustain it. By working at the intersection of personal memory, multigenerational cohabitation, and biophilic spatial strategy, Story Architecture delivers a home that functions as an emotional support system as much as a physical shelter.

Design Team: Story Architecture is a Ho Chi Minh City-based architectural practice whose earliest documented works date to 2018, when founding principal Nguyen Kava (b. 1984) began developing a residential design methodology rooted in what he terms the philosophy of egolessness: the conviction that architectural decisions must be subordinated entirely to the physical and psychological needs of the occupants, rather than serving as a vehicle for the designer’s self-expression. Led today by Nguyen Kava as principal, with participating architects Tran Le Trung and Pham Nhu Ha Giang, the practice has built a distinctive body of work that consistently addresses the challenges of Vietnam’s narrow urban tube-house typology.

The firm’s core design strategy operates through a rigorous integration of vertical zoning, cross-ventilation planning, and biophilic devices including vertical gardens, internal treehouses, skylight-integrated stairwells, and stacked balconies. These elements work in concert to introduce natural light and airflow into deep floor plates while establishing visual connectivity between levels, reinforcing familial bonds within a compact section. Story Architecture intentionally limits its output to fewer than ten projects per year, a discipline that enables deep spatial engagement with each commission and reflects its commitment to craft over volume.

Key built works include Villa City (2021), a compact multi-level residence in District 7 featuring a rooftop pool and integrated treehouse; House 3.5x17 (2024), a 59-square-metre dwelling that accommodates a lap pool within an acutely narrow section; Simon House (2025), deploying perforated white brickwork as a combined privacy screen and passive ventilation device; Tram Huong House (2025), whose undulating plant-clad facade reinterprets the tube house as a living urban biofilter; and Gather House, a multigenerational residence in Dong Nai focused on spatial connectivity across generations. A recurring material palette of reclaimed brick, exposed concrete, and natural timber underpins the practice’s commitment to low-embodied-energy construction. Story Architecture’s work is regularly featured in ArchDaily and designboom.