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\nArchitect Mel Schenck set about creating his ideal home in one of the city\u2019s lesser-known districts<\/p>\n
\nArchitect Mel Schenck set about creating his ideal home in one of the city\u2019s lesser-known districts<\/p>\n
By Calvin Godfrey
\nLike many Americans of a certain vintage, Mel Schenck\u2019s initial experience of Vietnam was coloured by war. Schenck first arrived in Ho Chi Minh City \u2013 then Saigon \u2013 in November 1971 to manage civil contracts awarded by the US Navy. During his yearlong deployment, he worked closely with Vietnamese teams building everything from movie theatres to hospitals to bridges.
\nHe recalled wanting to come back, some day.
\n\u201cI liked the people,\u201d he remembers as he reclines in the square wooden armchair he crafted for the airy living room in his unique home, which he calls the \u201cBreeze House\u201d in Ho Chi Minh City\u2019s Tran Phu District. \u201cThey seemed to have an innate sense of design and took care to make sure things looked good.\u201d
\nDuring the war years, Tran Phu contained little beyond rice paddies and dirt roads and it remains remote to most those in the city\u2019s cosmopolitan core.<\/p>\n
Although Ho Chi Minh City is increasingly popular with foreign expatriates, few venture down the motorbike-choked lanes that cut through this outer suburb like so many cracks through a windshield.
\nSchenck, who is originally from Montana, spent his civilian career in San Francisco where much of his work involved historical restoration. After thirty years, however, the city came to feel conservative and cold in climate and in feel.
\nWhen an opportunity to return to Vietnam\u2019s southern hub arose in 2005, he leapt at the chance.
\n\u201cThe first thing I did was try to track down my old projects,\u201d he says. But roads had moved. Bridges had washed out. Saigon had ballooned from two million to 10 million souls. \u201cI gave up after that first year.\u201d
\nSchenck spent a decade doing consulting work from apartments all over the city before deciding to build a home in Tran Phu mostly due to the affordable cost of land and the proximity to friends of his Vietnamese wife Oanh.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s messy, but I think people are becoming more attracted to that in the information age because it reflects the energy of the people,\u201d he says of his somewhat unlikely locale. \u201cWhen things start getting too orderly, that\u2019s a problem, because it means you aren\u2019t going anywhere.\u201d
\nMore: Joglo architecture meets minimalist design
\nSchenck looked at 20 lots before purchasing a one-story home in his residential alleyway. Using open-source software he sketched out the Breeze House and hired his Vietnamese brother-in-law to oversee the construction, which took just six months from demolition to completion.
\nAs such, the building only occupies 60 percent of the lot, allowing ample space for tropical gardens both front and back. Each room features a balcony that extends straight out through glass doors.<\/p>\n
Every day, his wife tends to their rooftop garden.
\nThe central staircase ensures a constant flow of both light and air, enough to nurture the small \u201cjungle\u201d Schenck planted in the centre of his living room. Each interior cross-wall features a row of sleek louver windows, which are only ever battened down during the still, scorching dog days of the dry season.
\nThe rest of the time, natural air flows through the house like wind through a whistle.
\nSchenck always assumed he would retire on the plains of Montana. Instead he found himself settled in what many in the West would interpret as chaos.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife here is so intense \u2013 the smells, the tastes, even the audio,\u201d he agrees. \u201cI can\u2019t go back; I get my energy from the people, particularly the young people. It\u2019s what keeps me going here.\u201d
\nEvery week, he holds a seminar for a group of architecture students and attempts to impart how the city (and country) offers a beautiful incarnation of the principles he studied 50 years ago.
\nMore: Why this Milan-born developer now calls Boracay his home
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been to all of the modernist centres: Miami, Mexico City, Japan,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s more modernist architecture in Vietnam than anywhere else in the world.\u201d
\nMost homes in Ho Chi Minh City contain elaborate protections against would-be burglars \u2013 a requirement Schenck transformed into a design opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in houses here with bars inside the windows and it makes you just feel like you\u2019re in jail,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d rather be in a bird cage.\u201d
\nSchenck provided a steel worker with a few general guidelines and then told him to build it like an artist. The result is a lattice of random and inter-connected steel bars that acknowledge the connectivity and random nature of the information age.
\nSchenck says Tran Phu\u2019s removal from the city\u2019s tawny colonial core allow him the time and space he needs to hone his Vietnamese and write. Yet he finds himself constantly drawn into the outside world through his cell phone and computer.
\nOtherwise, life in the Breeze House feels vaguely rural.<\/p>\n
Each day begins with the crow of fighting cocks kept by his neighbours, while pigs amble in the vacant lot out back.
Architect Mel Schenck set about creating his ideal home in one of the city\u2019s lesser-known...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":591,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Breeze-House_Property-Report-1.png?fit=740%2C493&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-9w","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":113333,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/analysts-pick-london-ho-chi-minh-singapore-for-property-investors-seeking-to-avoid-hong-kongs-woes\/","url_meta":{"origin":590,"position":0},"title":"Analysts pick London, Ho Chi Minh, Singapore for property investors seeking to avoid Hong Kong\u2019s woes","date":"December 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The new year is promising to be a brighter place for property investors looking for opportunities outside Hong Kong, as industry consultants favour several tried-and-tested locations in Europe and Southeast Asia.With no end in sight to the city\u2019s political impasse, real-estate investments in Portugal, Greece and Ireland have become\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69180,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/vincomvietnam-ho-chi-minh-sale\/","url_meta":{"origin":590,"position":1},"title":"Vincom\/Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh sale","date":"October 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Interest in the country may grow if minority investors are treated well\r \r Source : ft.com\r Read more...Vincom\/Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh sale","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":148760,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/ho-chi-minh-to-northcote-southern-hemispheres-largest-modular-housing-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":590,"position":2},"title":"Ho Chi Minh to Northcote: \u2018Southern Hemisphere\u2019s largest modular housing project\u2019","date":"January 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"\r 'We see New Zealand as a long-term strategy - slow but long term.' - Alistair Sawer of TLC\r \r Source : nzherald.co.nz\/Property\r Read more...Ho Chi Minh to Northcote: \u2018Southern Hemisphere\u2019s largest modular housing project\u2019","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70516,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/sunwah-group-tempts-hong-kong-buyers-with-ho-chi-minh-city-property-project\/","url_meta":{"origin":590,"position":3},"title":"Sunwah Group tempts Hong Kong buyers with Ho Chi Minh City property project","date":"October 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Investors from Hong Kong, the top buyers of property in Ho Chi Minh City where home prices have doubled in less than 10 years, got first preference on a new tower in the Vietnamese city. 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New high-end apartment projects developed in the central districts of Ho Chi Minh City have made the competition on this million-dollar market more intense.\u00a0 By Phuong Uyen Since the beginning of this year, many new luxury\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHis wife tends a vegetable garden on the penultimate floor and relatives occupy the guest rooms built on the second floor. When the whole family comes down from the north of the country to visit, they push aside all of the sleek wood furniture Schenck designed and eat together on the floor.
\nEvery morning, Schenck eats breakfast on the street and then takes a stroll through a neighborhood free of any noticable western influence.
\n\u201cI\u2019m addicted to the intensity of life here; every day I see something new and I learn,\u201d he says with no small amount of pride. \u201cIf I was sitting back in Montana it would be a long time before I learned anything again.\u201d
\n
\nSource : property-report.com
\nRead more…Inside a Viet vet\u2019s custom-built home in Ho Chi Minh City<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"