Philippe Starck’s first project in Vietnam is a residence that emerges from the landscape

The first residential project in Vietnam by Philippe Starck takes shape directly from the landscape, turning architecture into a natural extension of its surroundings.

Ironic, provocative, and visionary, Starck has always developed a design approach that surprises while remaining deeply attentive to people—their emotional as well as functional needs. This anthropocentric tension clearly emerges in Nhà Estate, his first residential project in Vietnam, recently unveiled: a more contemplative work than his usual language, yet equally powerful and centered on the human experience in relation to nature. Located on a peninsula between the Ray River and the sea in Ho Tram, near Ho Chi Minh City, the development is conceived as an integrated ecosystem. The masterplan follows an organic layout that responds to the site’s morphology and includes 38 villas, a boutique hotel, a restaurant, and a beach club.

Here, Starck merges his expressive language with an Eastern sensitivity focused on natural balance, conceiving architecture as a silent, almost ancestral presence—something that seems to emerge from the ground, as if it had always belonged there. “An elsewhere in Vietnam,” as the designer describes it. Ethereal glass volumes lighten the rocky base on which they rest, dissolving the boundary between architecture and landscape through a refined interplay of light and shadow, openness and enclosure, gravity and lightness. Inside, careful attention to views captures sea breezes, natural light, and surrounding scenery, bringing nature into everyday domestic rituals. “Nhà Estate is a home of life and humanity, honesty and harmony,” says Starck. “A place designed to awaken intelligence, inspire creativity, and help people live more intensely, more consciously, more humanly.”