TH+ House / ODDO Architects

Architects: ODDO architects
Area: 96 m²
Year: 2025
Photography: Hoang Le Photography
Lead Architects: Marek Obtulovič, Mai Lan Chi, Nguyen Duc Trung
Contractor: B-Up Construction
City: Hanoi
Country: Vietnam

TH+ House by ODDO architects extends an earlier family residence within one of Hanoi’s densely built alley neighborhoods, transforming an exceptionally narrow 2.5-meter-wide plot into a vertically organized home. Rather than treating density solely as a limitation, the project uses its constrained dimensions to develop a sequence of connected domestic environments with different degrees of openness, privacy, and activity. A central red steel column provides the principal structural support, allowing thinner walls and more generous openings, while skylights, vertical voids, porous floors, and a south-facing façade improve daylight and ventilation. Tea, reading, living, guest, children’s, and outdoor spaces are distributed throughout the compact volume, supported by a varied material palette and planted terraces. The project also maintains visual relationships with the surrounding alley community, balancing family privacy with the social character of Hanoi’s dense residential fabric.

TH+ House is shaped by the particular conditions of Hanoi’s alley neighborhoods, where narrow pedestrian routes bring private homes into proximity with everyday communal activity. On a plot measuring only 2.5 meters in width, ODDO architects faced the familiar constraints of dense urban housing, including restricted daylight, limited ventilation, and the tendency for narrow plans to become divided into isolated rooms. Rather than responding with a conventional sequence of enclosed spaces, the architects developed the house as a vertically connected environment in which openness, visual relationships, and variation provide a sense of spatial generosity beyond the dimensions of the site.

The project is also an extension of TH House, completed in 2021 on an adjacent plot for the same family. The two structures operate as a combined vertical home, allowing the residence to grow incrementally as the household changes. This approach avoids replacing the existing building and instead establishes continuity between two stages of domestic development. Different spaces are distributed throughout the new structure to support shared activities as well as individual retreat, giving residents the flexibility to move between environments according to their needs, privacy requirements, and daily routines.

Structure becomes a defining element of this strategy. Because the narrow plot shares a load-bearing wall, conventional thick perimeter walls would have significantly reduced the usable interior area. The architects instead organized the building around a single red steel column extending from the ground floor to the fourth floor. The column provides the primary structural backbone while becoming an explicit part of the architectural composition. By concentrating structural support in this central element, the project permits thinner walls, wider openings, and a more fluid relationship between rooms. Spaces, including the tea room, guest room, living room, and children’s room, are consequently integrated into a broader vertical spatial system rather than functioning as isolated compartments.

Environmental strategies reinforce this openness. A south-facing façade introduces soft and consistent daylight, while skylights and vertical voids draw natural light farther into the interior. Porous sections between floors assist both illumination and air movement, helping establish cross-ventilation despite the building’s restricted footprint. The program is consequently layered through a series of spaces that include a reading room, flexible living areas, a small terrace, and a bar, alongside the more private rooms. Material variation adds tactile and visual distinction within the compact volume, while planted terraces and green areas introduce vegetation and contribute to the building’s microclimate.

The relationship with the surrounding alley remains central to the house’s architectural character. Rather than turning inward in response to the density around it, TH+ House preserves visual connections with the neighborhood, maintaining a degree of engagement with the social life beyond the property. At the same time, its vertical arrangement creates different levels of privacy for the family. The resulting balance reflects an understanding of density as both a physical constraint and a source of community. Completed in 2025, the project demonstrates how incremental residential architecture can respond to changing family needs while using structure, daylight, ventilation, vegetation, and spatial diversity to create a more adaptable form of urban living.