Sustainable Architectural Characteristics of Housing in Vietnamese Mekong River Delta

The study aims to investigate sustainable architectural characteristics of housing in Vietnamese Mekong River Delta. To achieve the objective, the following approaches were implemented. Firstly, the concepts of sustainable architecture, which the styles and construction principals adapting to surrounding environment, are briefly described. Secondly, Khmer and Cham ethnic group are known as the second and third largest ethnic groups living in Vietnamese Mekong River Delta. Their housing is located in the rural areas, where is affected by disadvantage of natural environment. Khmer and Cham ethnic group’s housing contains the characteristics adapting to surrounding environment. Hence, a survey of Khmer and Cham ethnic group’s housing in Vietnamese Mekong River Delta is conducted to examine characteristics of settlement, planning scheme, form, façade and housing materials. Twenty of Khmer housing and fifteen of Cham housing are comprehensively surveyed in this study. Lastly, these characteristics are analyzed and compared to the concepts of sustainable architecture to determine whether the sustainable architectural perception have existed in Khmer and Cham ethnic housing. The result reveals that the Khmer and Cham housing contains the characteristics which are designed in harmony with surrounding the environment. These characteristics should be the valuable lessons to apply to current housing design in Vietnamese Mekong River Delta.