40m2 House Transforms a Dark Townhouse into s Tall Shared Retreat
40m2 House sits at the end of a quiet alley in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where designer Ha Anh Vu reworks a modest footprint into a layered home. The compact house keeps its familiar memories intact while reorganizing daily life for its residents and their cats, turning less than 40 square meters into a tall, open sequence of rooms that trade tightness for shared rituals, light, and air.
Light drops through the narrow volume and reaches the floor like a soft column. From the alley, the entrance gives little away, then opens to unexpected height and airflow.
Within this compact house, a familiar Vietnamese townhouse plan becomes a vertical home for a small household and their cats. The renovation in Ho Chi Minh City by Ha Anh Vu focuses on daily patterns: where people move, where animals climb, and how shared rooms breathe. A new internal void ties the levels together, so the home feels open yet still grounded in the memories gathered over ten years.
The property began as a typical tube house, narrow and dim at the ground floor. Poor ventilation left the lower level heavy, so the renovation cuts a large vertical void through the stacked floors, using the existing stair as a spine. This move pulls daylight and fresh air down to the entrance, where the sense of volume immediately contradicts the modest footprint and resets expectations for the rest of the interior.
Vertical Void As Heart
The new void acts as a tall courtyard inside the house. Air circulates freely between levels, and light shifts slowly across walls and stair treads through the day. Visual links between floors keep family life connected, so greetings, sounds, and glances travel as easily as the breeze. Within this column of height, the building finally breathes, trading its former heaviness for a sense of calm depth.
Shared Ground Floor Life
The ground floor turns into the main living level, where people and cats share the same routines. Positioned right at the entry, the void sets a tall, airy tone before any furniture or finish speaks. Everyday activities unfold around this central volume, from sitting and talking to watching the animals move along their own paths. Even with less than 40 square meters, the room feels taller than it is wide, so movement reads as generous instead of cramped.
Library Above, Retreat On Top
One level up, the first floor works as a compact library with strong character. Books, a desk, and quiet corners encourage focused reading, yet the opening to the void keeps it connected to life below. When guests stay, this room turns into a bedroom without losing that visual and emotional link down to the living area. The second floor steps away from the lively stack, serving as a private master bedroom, a calmer retreat from the movement threaded through the lower levels.
Pathways For Cats
Throughout the house, small corners and ledges cater to feline routines. Climbing steps, narrow paths, and resting spots line walls and beam edges, giving the animals vertical territory of their own. Each ledge turns a leftover corner into another small world, adding a playful layer to the way rooms connect. In this way, the house quietly measures out daily happiness in shared territory between people and pets.
Everyday joy is written into these adjustments, from the soft fall of light down the void to the small cat paths skimming the edges of rooms. The renovation is not driven by image alone; it is shaped around how a family actually lives together in a compact footprint. With its reworked height, fresh air, and patient sequence of rooms, 40m2 House stays modest on the alley yet feels fully renewed inside.
Photography courtesy of Ha Anh Vu
- by Matt Watts
