District 2 of Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is one of the Southeast Asian urban hub’s fastest developing areas, currently making its way from being one of the poorest to one of the most modern.
Bridging old and new in this context is key to maintaining the city’s character and history, and this is the approach that Italian architecture firm Locatelli Partners took when designing its latest project there, French-style ‘epicerie’ grocery store complex Le Square.
The arched new spaces inside the old villa, which houses shops and a restaurant.
The scheme, which combines an existing colonial-style villa and an L-shaped new build, contains food shops and a restaurant on the ground level, with co-working spaces and offices upstairs.
A delicate mesh cladding connects the old and new parts in a semi-transparent ‘cloud’. Different colour tones on the cladding help distinguish various parts of the new construction, while Massimiliano Locatelli and his team opened up the interior of the old villa to create generous, arched new spaces, maintaining the original stone staircase at its heart.
As originally featured in the November 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*248) – on newsstands now
The complex’s delicate, cloud-like mesh cladding
INFORMATION
locatellipartners.com
-
Dutch Design Awards 2025 honour a new generation of creativesRecognising the use of AI as a design tool, social commentary, and new materials, this year’s Dutch Design Awards go to Vera van der Burg; Willem de Haan; and Marten van Middelkoop and Joost Dingemans of Plasticiet
-
The return of Genghis Cohen: LA’s cult Chinese diner lives onThe 1980s Chinese-American landmark returns with red booths, neon nostalgia, and a fresh dose of Hollywood eccentricity
-
A monumental exhibition of French design revives the spirit of art deco for contemporary timesThe Galerie des Gobelins hosts the inaugural Salon des Nouveaux Ensembliers, a contemporary movement inspired by art deco’s grand traditions
-
The 2026 Winter Olympics Village is complete. Take a look insideAhead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, taking place in Milan in February, the new Olympic Village Plaza is set to be a bustling community hub, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
-
Anish Kapoor designs Naples station as a reflection of ‘what it really means to go underground’A new Naples station by artist Anish Kapoor blends art and architecture, while creating an important piece of infrastructure for the southern Italian city
-
‘Landscape architecture is the queen of science’: Emanuele Coccia in conversation with Bas SmetsItalian philosopher Emanuele Coccia meets Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets to discuss nature, cities and ‘biospheric thinking’
-
This historic Sicilian house cost one euro. Go inside its transformationPalermo-based firm Didea teamed up with AirBNB to reimagine the once-dilapidated property in vibrant colour blocks
-
A guide to Renzo Piano’s magic touch for balancing scale and craft in architectureProlific and innovative, Renzo Piano has earned a place among the 20th century's most important architects; we delve into his life and career in this ultimate guide to his work
-
How was Carlo Ratti’s ‘Intelligens’? Wallpaper* editors discuss the 19th Venice BiennaleHaving visited ‘Intelligens’, the 19th Venice Biennale's main show by curator Carlo Ratti, the Wallpaper* editors discuss what they saw at the world's biggest global architecture festival
-
Discover architect Ico Parisi’s modernist sanctuaries on the banks of Lake ComoA string of sculptural sanctuaries by architect Ico Parisi on the banks of Lake Como helped cement the area as the heartland of Italian modernism; we explore his work in an article from the Wallpaper* archives
-
Explore this new Lake Como villa and its powerful, cinematic viewsA Lake Como villa by Tuckey Design Studio celebrates the history of its site and references the surrounding landscape through materiality
