A Vietnamese architect this week won an internationally renowned architecture award given in England to his house design that functions as a series of pots for trees.

The “House for Trees” designed by Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia in collaboration with Masaaki Iwamoto and Kosuke Nishijima from Japan, led the race for the 5th AR House Awards 2014 presented in London on June 18 as it was considered the best work to help deal with urban pollution.

The design, which comprises five concrete boxes which serve as oversized pots to plant trees on the top, beat nearly 200 other architectural works from all over the world to win the first prize.

The two-bedroom home for a family of three, which is located in Tan Binh District, one of the most densely populated areas in Ho Chi Minh City, is also the first house in Vietnam whose construction material is bamboo-reinforced concrete so far.

According to the architect, the aim of the US$156,000 house is to bring green space back into the city, accommodating high-density dwelling with big tropical trees, and solving the problem in which new generations in urban areas are losing their connection with nature.

Nghia has long been famous for his green space-inspired designs. Before “House for Trees,” the architect also made his name with several masterpieces including “Binh Thanh House” and “Kontum Indochine Café.”

“Binh Thanh house” is composed of two different spaces positioned alternately and features pattern blocks, which used to be a popular shading device in Vietnam to get natural ventilation. Made of pre-cast concrete, the blocks not only keep out harsh sunlight and heavy rain but also enhance the house owners’ sense of privacy and safety.

Nghia’s other work, “Kontum Indochine Café,” is designed as part of a hotel complex along the Dakbla River in Kontum City in the Central Highlands. The edifice boasts a main building with a large horizontal roof in bamboo structure and an annex kitchen made of concrete frames and stones.

By providing shadow under the bamboo roof and maximizing the cool air flow, the open-air indoor space can do without air conditioning even in the hot climate. The roof is covered with fiber-reinforced plastic panels and thatch.

The roof of the main building is supported by a pure bamboo structure which is made up of 15 units shaped in the upside-down cones. This open structure maximizes wind flow into the building during the summer, while keeping out gusts or storms during the windy season.

Both works were early this year listed in the Top 5 of the “Building of the Year” award launched by Archdaily, a world-leading website on architecture, in the Housing category and Restaurant and Hotel category, respectively.

Nghia pocketed 11 international architecture awards of various categories in 2012. He was named ‘the vanguard designer’ by the U.S. Architectural Record, and one of the top 21 architects of the 21st century by the World Architecture News in the same year for his unique bamboo works, including eco-resort Pavilion in Vietnam and Hill Restaurant in Mexico.

AR House Awards is an internationally renowned architecture award granted annually by Architectural Review, an architecture magazine, to the best architectural work of the year.