The recipient of the 2018 Red Dot Award can withstand natural disasters but barely costs a few thousand dollars to build
The Red Dot Award, instituted in 1950, is a prestigious annual design prize given by Germany’s Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. The award is given in three categories: Product Design, Communication Design and Design Concept.
The bamboo house designed by Vietnamese architect Doan Thanh Ha has won in the Design Concept category this year, with the organizers calling it suitable for building in areas around the world prone to natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and landslides.
The house is made from two kinds of modularized bamboo: 8-10 cm or 4-5 cm across and 3.3 m or 6.6 m long. Simple techniques like latching, tying and hanging are all that are needed for the construction.
With its sturdy frame (built from bamboo poles with 8-10 cm diameter), the house is structurally strong enough to withstand nature’s fury, including floods of up to 1.5 m.
The internal spaces can be used for a variety of purposes like housing, education, healthcare, and community use, and can be expanded according to need.
Ha built his first bamboo house in 2013 in a family’s garden in Co Nhue Commune, Hanoi. The house has a mezzanine and a ground floor measuring 44 sq.m.
Its construction is so simple homeowners can do it themselves in 25 days. Its cheap materials mean it only costs around VND50 million ($2,140), making it both eco-friendly and pocket-friendly.
The design enables it to be used as a fully functional house with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. The interiors of the house are also made from natural materials like bamboo, fiberboard and coconut leaves.
The house in Co Nhue has become old, and Ha said for the model to withstand natural disasters he needs to improve some parts of the design.
