Excerpt: Jackfruit Village, designed by 1+1>2 Architects, is a nature-integrated retreat centered around a meditation house, with residences spreading organically under existing trees. Blending local materials and farming practices, it offers guests an immersive rural experience, fostering harmony with nature, community, and self—while promoting local Vietnamese culture and sustainable living.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] The site is located in Trai Lang Village, Co Dong Commune, Son Tay town, with a total area of 1.7 ha, surrounded by a lake in the South and South-west. The existing site has 38 jackfruit trees, 13 pomelo trees, which are typical of rural areas in the North of Vietnam.
The main ideas: nuclear of the project is the Meditation house: a meditation space, community space, located in the center. Residential units are spread from the center and naturally rely on feet of jackfruit and pomelo trees, making the most of shade for common yards. According to the topography, house platforms are elevated to avoid termites, humid as well as ensure natural surface drainage. Each building is an enjoyable experience, maximizing symbiosis with local vegetation and topography.
The project identifies a unique form of hotel and hospitality business in which guests experience living with local farmers in a variety of housing genres: detached villas, semi-detached villas, etc. By applying the agriculture model with a vegetable garden, jackfruit tree (a local specialty) and fruit-tree garden, cage fish farming and cattle farm, organic food products are provided daily. Service area with diversified amenities: local cuisine, swimming pool, spa, traditional herbal bath, practice meditation, sharing happiness viewpoint, bungalow for artists,…promote vernacular culture, allow guests to mingle with artists’ living space and contribute to improving income and living standards of local people.
The design emphasizes a sense of community inside Jackfruit Village as well as easily connects with surrounding villages by experienced routes: biking, rowing. Buildings’ envelope in the project uses local and friendly materials: adobe bricks, broad expanse thatched roof which creates shadow itself and controls solar radiation efficiently. Each building has its own biological 5-chamber septic tank and wastewater filtration is placed at the end of the wind direction.
This project desires to create a simple, peaceful and friendly environment for guests, evoke a new image of Vietnamese rural life, stabilizing and enhancing local people’s lives based on the foundation of inheriting and promoting local cultural values in the context of urban explosion and market economy.
Jackfruit village by 1+1>2 is a Tolerant village: (1) Tolerance to nature (plants, cattle, ecosystem, etc); (2) Tolerance to fellow-creature (humans interact with each other); (3) Be tolerant of yourself (local people, guests are able to find themselves).
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