An office building in Quang Binh Province, central Vietnam has emerged as a unique heat-proof model amid the blistering heat raging across the country, as it has been covered with greenery that makes it look like a ‘green fortress.’ 

As the headquarters of the Public Service Management Board of the province’s Dong Hoi City, the three-story building has its roof and outer walls covered with verdant plants of various species.

Located in Duc Ninh Dong Ward, the office, affectionately called the ‘green fortress’ by locals, is the only one they have built in this special style, the board said.

It provides visitors with a feeling of coolness and comfort as if they strayed into a tropical forest in the heart of the city, especially when Vietnam has been suffering from blistering weather patterns up to 44 degrees Celsius for the past few months.

The building was initially planned to be the same as other construction works, but a ‘green’ change was made to it in 2022, when a project that supports Vietnam to implement the Paris climate agreement was jointly executed by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in coordination with the Quang Binh Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

As part of this project, its management board chose the building for piloting the ‘greening’ of roofs and walls of a construction work as a solution for adaptation to climate change. 

Accordingly, the exterior walls of the building were outfitted with grid frames, onto which planting modules were affixed. Plots of plants were then inserted into these modules and secured with safety locks.

A garden was designed on the roof to provide vegetation.   

An automated watering and drainage system was installed to effectively serve the entire greenery system of the building, ensuring all the plants are verdant all the time despite the boiling hot weather.  

In addition, an underground tank capable of holding 50 cubic meters of water was built to collect and treat rainwater as well as wastewater from the greenery system before providing treated water to a total of around 845 square meters of the plants on the walls and in the rooftop garden.

The greenery system helps filter dust, humidify the air, regulate the microclimate, ease noise pollution, and save energy, according to the Public Service Management Board.  

Currently, the walls and roof of the building are covered with many small potted plants such as bougainvillea, moss rose, nipa palm, blue daze, fern, umbrella plant, fern, devil's vine, and spider plant, among others. 

In the midday heat of 43 degrees Celsius on Tuesday in Dong Hoi, the office stood out from many other buildings nearby as a sustainable heat-proof model with its walls covered with lush greenery, the board said.

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