Modern office building has a plant checkerboard facade

Vietnamese firm Vo Trong Nghia has done a lot to expand our imaginations of what plant-infused architecture could look like. From a sleek concrete house with courtyard gardens to a knotted, green roofed school to buildings that look like literal planters, the sky’s the limit, it seems.

Now, the firm has completed a striking new administrative building on the campus of FPT University, part of a new hi-tech park growing right outside of Hanoi. The facade of the building takes on a checkerboard pattern, thanks to square recessed balconies planted with trees. The square motif also finds itself way inside through built-in niches on the walls and ceilings.

Since the location is prone to power outages, the firm employed passive design strategies to lower the building’s energy demand. The orientation of the building is optimized for breezes—like those blowing from across the nearby lake—and natural ventilation. The shallow depth of the building facilitates natural light penetration across the building, while the trees in the balconies provide shading.

Via: Dezeen