Living With Gaps And Green: Mochi House And The Architecture Of Embraced Imperfection

Project Info

Project Name: Mochi House

Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Architects/Designers: LÊ TIẾN ANH

Manufacturer: SPACE DESIGN ARCHGROUP Company (SDAG)

Designed as a heartfelt gift from a multigenerational family to their young daughter, Mochi House is an intimate residential project that rethinks how architecture can support coexistence, care, and emotional continuity across generations. Rather than pursuing formal perfection, the house is shaped by sensitivity to daily habits, age-specific needs, and the subtle bonds that define family life.

Fragmented volumes and staggered balconies form a “house within a house,” softening the urban townhouse profile

A Home for Many Generations

From the outset, the design responds to the challenge of accommodating both the elderly and the young within a single domestic framework. Comfort, accessibility, and emotional connection guided every spatial decision. The elderly bedroom is positioned to face a reflective pond, allowing calm interaction with nature and visual engagement with children at play. Across the upper levels, carefully arranged openings and sightlines encourage gentle communication between family members without disrupting privacy, fostering a sense of togetherness that feels natural rather than imposed.

Curved terrazzo floors and a glass-enclosed green core shape a calm, light-filled heart of the home

Living areas open toward the central void, allowing daily life to unfold around greenery and reflected light

Re-centering the House Around Nature

A key conceptual shift in Mochi House is the relocation of the home’s “center.” Instead of a conventional enclosed core, the design introduces a vertical green lung that runs through the entire height of the building. This ecological heart enhances ventilation, draws daylight deep into the narrow urban site, and improves the indoor microclimate. More importantly, it becomes a shared spatial anchor, linking floors, functions, and generations through light, air, and greenery.

Voids and planted pockets create visual continuity across floors

The Beauty of Imperfection and Compensation

At the core of Mochi House lies a philosophical embrace of imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness. Irregular corners, leftover gaps, and awkward transitions are not corrected but celebrated. The architects interpret these spaces as opportunities for “compensation,” allowing fragments to become expressive architectural moments. The result is a series of “small houses within a larger house,” each revealing its own story and character. Asymmetry and incompleteness are transformed into identity, giving the home a sense of authenticity and emotional depth.

A Micro-neighborhood Within the House

Spatially, the house resembles a cluster of interlocking dwellings rather than a single unified volume. Balconies of varying heights, green pockets, and intersecting circulation paths create a miniature streetscape within the home. Horizontal and vertical movements overlap, echoing the dynamics of urban life but in a quieter, more intimate register. This micro-neighborhood encourages slow living, casual encounters, and moments of reflection throughout the day.

Vertical and horizontal circulation paths intersect like miniature streets within the house

Light, Air, and Material Continuity

Functionally, the project leverages vertical layering to address site constraints while maintaining a continuous indoor - outdoor experience. Large glass surfaces allow cross-ventilation from façade to roof, ensuring airflow despite dense planting. Terrazzo is used consistently across floors and stair walls, visually unifying the architecture and enhancing light reflection. A floating spiral staircase rises above the pond at the center of the house, acting as both a circulation element and a sculptural focal point surrounded by greenery and daylight.

A planted balcony beneath a lightweight canopy filters sunlight and sky

A floating spiral staircase rises above the pond, acting as both sculptural centerpiece and spatial connector

Rethinking the Vietnamese Townhouse

Mochi House proposes an alternative model for urban living in Vietnam. Instead of maximizing built area, the design prioritizes voids, green pockets, and compensatory spaces. Fragmented volumes, micro-balconies, and layered circulation paths create a dynamic spatial network rarely seen in narrow urban homes. The “house within a house” concept transforms constraints into defining features, offering a fresh architectural language rooted in human experience rather than formal rigidity.

The vertical green lung draws light and air through every level

A Living Legacy

More than a residence, Mochi House is a spatial legacy shaped by love, memory, and acceptance. By allowing imperfection to guide the design process, the project demonstrates how architecture can reflect the realities of life - uneven, evolving, and deeply personal. In celebrating what is usually hidden or corrected, Mochi House stands as a poetic reminder that incompleteness, when embraced, can become a powerful source of beauty and meaning.

PHOTO CREDIT: SPACE DESIGN ARCHGROUP