The Dragons of “Anchorage” Bay
Reputed architectural design studio ICE raises the bar in the field of innovative architectural design. In partnership with Trinity & Associates ICE’s designers have developed a complex of buildings named Dragon City 6 (DC6) to be built in the resort town of Vung Tau, which is located 128 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
With Vung Tau being a popular seafront resort for the city of Ho Chi Minh, as well as a wealthy oil city, luxurious housing, hotel and time share apartments is the driving force of the property market. The site lies close to the beach, which makes it an ideal resort. The design aims to maximize the programs on the site by introducing a mix of time share, residential units and hotel, commercial and recreational spaces. With its exquisite location at the ocean shore, in the middle of this popular urban beach resort, the Dragon City of Vung Tau has the potential to define a new kind of urban resort living. DC6 is an award winning master plan project as a joint venture between ICE and Trinity & Associates. The complex consists of 4 towers, united by a common podium. It is planned that there will be provided several zones for residential apartments, service maintenance premises, as well as non-residential units with their own recreational facilities. Thus, DC6 will be the ‘city within a city.”
Concept
As the standards of living improve, the Lifestyle places emphasis on quality, beauty, ecology, refinement rather than ostentatious flaunting of wealth. This shall translate into a new intelligent luxury. ICE’s approach to the high density demands of the site was to create an iconic Urban Resort that transforms the high density and huge volumes into a dynamic, fluid configuration that comes alive with shifting towers ensuring maximization of the view in all directions of the ocean and Vung Tai City for every apartment. With an exquisite location at the ocean shore, in the middle of the most popular urban beach resort for the urban metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City, the design of our proposal DC6 of Vung Tau is putting emphasis on to creating a kind of urban resort living in a high density development. With a view to the downtown of Vung Tau and an ocean view, the intention of the design was to maximize the qualities of both views.
The challenge for that project was how to combine the advantages of a leisure development with individuality, solitude and unobstructed views and the needs of a high density development with high rises and repetition of construction methodology. Yet the required plot ratio of PR 6.0 introduces an unusual density to the city of Vung Tau as well as to the given program. To balance the purpose of a leisure living with the urban like density, the formal design strategy of this project was trying to find a formal and spatial concept that allows free views for all the residents as well as maximized distance between the different towers. The design aims to overcome the density by shifting the floor plates of the towers and therefore give more distance and multiple viewing directions to each unit. Furthermore, this arrangement allows keeping the right architectural balance in general, without feeling crowded.
Location: Vung Tau, Vietnam
Customer: DIC
Architects: ICE and Trinity & Associates
Design team: Ulrich Kirchhoff, Louise Low, Claudia Wigger, Minh Li Van, Mao Tim Mao Yiqing
Land area: 55,000 sq. m
Building area: 330,000 sq. m
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Materials provided by ICE and Trinity & Associates