Goethe Institute Vietnam
Renovation of a listed villa

The Goethe Institute in Hanoi has been extended with the renovation of a neighbouring villa. This completes a “villa ensemble” that is unique among the over 1500 French villas in the Vietnamese capital. The villa, built in the 1920s as a residence for French colonial officers, was designed in the Art Deco style of the time and is now considered worthy of preservation. The top priority during the renovation project was to maintain, and where necessary recreate as accurately as possible, the architectural elements of the Art Deco style. The goal was to convert the one-time residential house into a 21^st-century school building.

Inros Lackner Vietnam, working together with Inros Lackner Cambodia, was appointed as General Planner for the conversion and renovation work, with services including architecture, building condition assessment, structural design, technical building equipment and site supervision. A particular challenge was posed by the condition of the main structural elements. Acidification of the aged concrete had resulted in serious corrosion of the steel reinforcement, significantly reducing the load-bearing capacity of the floor slabs. Strengthening measures were thus required throughout the building. Approximately 25 tonnes of steel I-beams were installed to take on the function of all the reinforcement steel in the slabs and downstand beams, creating a reliable steel-concrete composite system. This relatively costly strengthening solution was chosen to avoid destroying the historic flooring. The villa is the first in Hanoi to have been renovated in accordance with heritage protection regulations.