PHAN CHAU TRINH SPORTS HALL
The sports hall is part of an ongoing effort by Phan Chau Trinh Interlevel School to renew its infrastructure, gradually transforming its existing campus to accommodate the needs of both a growing school and the neighboring community.
The sports hall is conceived as a large, double-wall volume. This double-wall system, with an outer layer of corrugated metal separated from the inner layer of cement panels allows for an active climatic layer in-between. Seen from the surrounding streets, such double-wall facade begins to suggest the structure of gills, giving the building a changing appearance as light, shadow and movement pass across its surface. Such analogy is less about form than about performance: sunlight is filtered, rain is kept out, and air circulates through the cavity. The whole volume is therefore able to breathe within the hot and humid climate of Ho Chi Minh City. Inside, the spatial organisation is deliberately uncomplicated. The structure of the inner wall remains readable rather than being covered by layers of unnecessary and costly finishes.
The repetitive corrugation establishes an intentionally ordinary material language. Corrugated metal is familiar within the local construction landscape, commonly associated with factories, workshops, and utilitarian buildings. Here, its use is neither concealed nor elevated into a luxurious finish. Instead, the material is allowed to retain its everyday character while being reorganised into a more deliberate architectural system.
The project approaches the school's future infrastructure through incremental rather than monumental change. In this sense, an inexpensive and familiar construction material is reorganised into an environmental device: a double wall that mediates climate, light, ventilation and scale while giving a large, utilitarian volume a distinct architectural identity.
