An old house in a narrow alleyway in Ho Chi Minh City has been given a modernist makeover by local architecture studio Kientruc O, which transformed it to include a restaurant with a lush garden wrapped by gridded glazing.

Kientruc O redesigned the 161-square-metre building to connect the house with the garden, and garden with the street, and to provide a dining area for customers.
Plant fronds press up against abstract geometric pattern of alternating frosted, clear and channelled glass panels, with branches poking through frames that have been left empty.
The walls of the building that face the planted areas are glazed in a corresponding pattern, but with only clear glass panels.

The gridded design provides interest for passerbys but the property remains screened by the frosted glass and leaves, while on  the other side of the wall residents and customers have unimpeded views of the greenery. "Our focus when shaping this space was to create an environment that provoke emotional interactions with the architecture," said studio founder ?àm V?.

"The concept embodied the free and limitless character of space resulting in a humble and provocative sense of spatial purposes hinting toward the center of architecture being the subtle personal connection between the occupants, planters, furniture, and the garden," added the studio.
The abstract geometric pattern of the walls was designed according to the architect Le Corbusier's theory of the Modulor s...