Lee&Tee House

  • Type: Renovation
  • Location: Tân Bình, HCMC
  • Year: 2016
  • Area: 72m2

"This house means everything to us because it is the fruit of constant efforts to pursue our dreams," said the homeowners, a married couple of young age and active lifestyle. Talking about the house they have just bought, they wanted to renovate it into new living spaces and a home office--a fashion factory producing handcrafted leather products.

"For a product to be accomplished, say a handbag, it takes many processes involving fastidious needlework," they said about their job. And that is exactly how we renovated the house. Like meticulous craftsmen, we carefully joined up every part of the house: old ones and new ones, separate ones and shared ones, together with wood, brick, concrete, metal and trees.

The house appears as if it were "sewed" with thin, white, pure thread, which fills us with excitement. Unnecessary walls and floors were removed to make space, exposing a large structure which was "sewed" on walls alongside with big frames at the front and the back of the house. These frames were intricately made of small steel threads to form cubes, which were painted white and decorated with green creepers. Although seemingly slender, they are strong and efficiently protective toward the house, while still letting air and light go inside.

Inside the house, the old concrete staircase was removed, making vast space for light to come in the floors. A new staircase, which was made of seemingly floating wooden pieces "sewed" together with white threads, was put up. This allows light from above to come through to the ground floor. Here lie a long kitchen counter and a wavy table surrounding a small garden. This produces movement contrasting with the stillness of the brick walls.

Client: Ms. Lê Minh Thư
Project Team: Đặng Đức Hoà, Hoàng Hai Thành,
                       Hoàng Nam Chung
Contractor: Block Group
Photographs: Quang Dam