News - AIA Life Designers' First Southeast Asian Project Lands in Vietnam
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AIA Life Designers makes its debut in Southeast Asia with its first hospital in Vietnam - the General Practice Hospital of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine in Ho Chi Minh City.
This new 500-bed General Practice Hospital is envisioned as more than a healthcare facility. Designed to become a leading teaching and practice hospital in Vietnam, it brings together patient care, medical education, research, and community health within a coherent medical-learning campus.
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Responding to the city’s cultural and climatic context
The project draws inspiration from a distinctive feature of Saigon’s urban fabric: the hẻm, the shaded alleyways where daily and social life unfold.
“More than a simple alley, the hẻm is a lively, human-scaled environment that encourages community interaction and contributes to physical comfort and mental well-being.”
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This spatial logic is translated into the hospital’s architecture.Two parallel inpatient wings are organized around a central core, providing direct access to landscaped outdoor terraces.The building’s orientation makes strategic use of the prevailing southeast winds to encourage natural ventilation.
Shaded routes, recognizable entrances, waiting gardens, clinical front doors,and learning spaces create a hospital that feels less institutional, more legible, and more human.
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The result is a connected medical village where proximity shortens the journey to care, landscape helps reduce anxiety, and circulation becomes both an operational and therapeutic system.
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A big thanks to our partner VNCC in Hanoi. Together, we translated the cultural, climatic, and social intelligence of the hẻm into contemporary hospital architecture.
PROJECT PROFILE
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Program: General Practice Hospital, Teaching Hospital, Parking Building
Area: 146 806 m², 500 beds
Client: PMU (The Project Management Board for Civil and Industrial Works of Ho Chi Minh City)
Partners: VNCC（Vietnam National Construction Consultants Corporation）
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