Vietnamese architects have designed a university complex so festooned with trees that it will seem like a cool, forested mountain in the unrelenting urban landscape of Ho Chi Minh City.
The trees, planted on balconies, rooftops and elevated walkways on multi-level buildings will provide better quality air and shade to cut the need for excessive air conditioning.
The firm, Vo Trong Nghia Architects, said its design for the new, 22,500-sq-m campus at FPT University was intended to provide relief in the flat and sprawling metropolis almost completely devoid of greenery.
"To engage the city in a different way, FPT University appears as an undulating forested mountain growing out of the city of concrete and brick," the firm told Dezeen.
It added: "Cities, especially in thriving countries like Vietnam, are growing at such a speed that infrastructure is unable to keep pace. Environmental stress is observable through frequent energy shortages, increased pollution, rising temperatures, and reduced greenery.
"Ho Chi Minh City illustrates these issues, having only 0.25 per cent of the entire city covered in greenery."
Construction on the new campus, intended to accommodate up to 5,000 students, has already begun.
Vo Trong Nghia Architects have previously created similar tree covered designs for other projects.
