Beautifully Sited and Crafted in The Vernacular

Beautifully sited and crafted in the vernacular, Castaway Island integrates seamlessly with its setting, ofering a retreat from the world while making its own. The structure as a form successfully meets the challenges of becoming a part of the landscape while the materials used integrates it with the surroundings. With its cladding as structure and vice versa, and built with a minimum of means, this retreat interfaces between geographies, between the island and the sea, and whether intended or not, the analogous relationship between the shape of the bungalows and the mountainous island itself makes one question which came first.

Castaway Island Resort is located in a tiny island in Cat Ba Archipelago, a well-known tourist destination in Vietnam. It accommodates up to 160 guests,and is only accessible by boat. The site features a 3,000sqm private beach, engulfed on one side by a beautiful mountain range and on the other by an expansive shore of white sand. The resort consists of five huts for guest accomodation, a restaurant, and a pavilion. Bamboo is the primary material used, chosen for its environmental-friendly characteristics that can be integrated and easily removed afterwards without afecting the natural beautiful gulf at the site where the project is built. 

  

The restaurant features a hyperbolic-parabolic shell structure, which forms a semi-outdoor space for social gatherings and interaction. Each of the 13 bamboo shell units is composed of 80 straight bamboos, creating a wavy ceiling and rhythmical roof landscape. For accommodation, five huts are built from bamboo frame modules that ofer a cozy bed space for each guest. These frames are assembled on the ground to shorten construction time and improve workmanship. Recycled timber shutters, which are typically used in traditional Vietnamese colonial villas, form the hut’s façade. Despite the construction of the project, the site is left intact, with nature preserved thanks to the environmental-friendly bamboo structure. 

Project Information

Project Name: Castaway Island

Location: Vietnam

Architect: Vo Trong Nghia