Pearl Vista
Designed a 133-room hotel targeting 56% less energy and 63% less water than the Vietnamese norm.
Quang Ngai has no four or five star hotel, and six to eight new industrial park developments in the region are bringing in exactly the people who need one. Pearl Vista answers that gap for An Homes with a four-star, 133-room hotel on a 5,231 m² site in the Ngoc Bao Vien district, operated by MVillage Hotels.
The building is compact by design: 11,675 m² of floor area over seven storeys and 26 metres, on a footprint of 1,527 m². That leaves 2,825 m², 54% of the site, as landscape and water. The performance targets are set against the Vietnamese hotel average rather than against an international benchmark that would flatter the result: 56% less energy, 63% less water, and 30% of power generated on site.
The Problem
Sustainable hospitality in Vietnam is usually priced as a premium and built as one, which puts it out of reach of the market that would benefit most. The brief was the opposite: a hotel that a regional developer can actually finance and operate, whose environmental performance is the reason it is cheap to run rather than the reason it is expensive to build.
That reframes almost every decision. Performance had to come from massing, orientation, glazing ratio and shading before it came from equipment, because equipment is what a cost engineer removes first. And it had to be visible: the building is intended as a demonstration for the region, so the systems that do the work are exposed in the building and the landscape rather than hidden in a plant room.
Process
Get the performance out of the shape first
The massing is compact and the layout is organised around comfort and view rather than plan efficiency alone. Glazing is held to 60% with 60% shading, the wall build-up is aerated concrete at 40%, and the facade is single Low-E glass across the remaining 60%. These are the decisions that survive value engineering. Together with lighting sensors, high-efficiency inverter rooms, VRF with energy recovery ventilation and regenerative-drive lifts, they carry a 56% energy reduction.
Make the water system part of the landscape
Water saving reaches 63% by combining efficient fixtures with rainwater harvesting and reuse of lake storage and air-conditioning condensate. The treatment is not buried: a constructed wetland, water-interactive terraces and a boardwalk make the cycle visible and usable, alongside a community garden, a restaurant vegetable garden and a music pavilion. Seventy per cent of hot water comes from solar thermal.
Build it out of what is available locally
Embodied carbon is cut 23.6% through low-carbon concrete and unfired clay bricks throughout. The interior follows the same logic: locally sourced materials, artisanal craft carrying local identity, natural filtration for indoor air, and multifunctional furniture that reduces the total quantity of material in the building.
Give the town something it can use
The programme is deliberately more than beds. A 400 m² conference hall, four seminar rooms, a 170 m² co-working floor, 1,330 m² of retail and food and beverage, a cafe, daycare, gym and electric mobility rental make the building a hub for the town as well as its guests. That is also what keeps it occupied outside the tourist season.
Outcomes
- Energy reduction
- 56%
- Against the average Vietnamese hotel, before on-site generation.
- Water saving
- 63%
- Efficient fixtures, rainwater harvesting, lake and condensate reuse.
- Power generated on site
- 30%
- From 1,650 m² of leased solar.
- Embodied carbon reduction
- 23.6%
- Low-carbon concrete and 100% unfired clay bricks.
- Site returned as landscape
- 54%
- 2,825 m² of a 5,231 m² site, against a 29% building footprint.
- Rooms
- 133
- Across seven storeys and 11,675 m² of floor area.
Gallery
Except's deep expertise was pivotal in shaping the strategy for our An Homes hotel in Quang Ngai. Their innovative approach proved that true sustainability can enhance value without compromise, setting a new benchmark for eco-conscious hospitality.
Credits
Client: An Homes, Phuong Nguyen. Operator: MVillage Hotels.
Except team: Tom Bosschaert (Project Director), Chi Nguyen (Business Development), Kano Nguyen (Architect, Coordinator), Baro Nguyen (Research, Urbanist & Landscape), Ruby Le (Research, Urbanist & Landscape), Sonia Gholami (Head of Research), Amir Aubed Zoubi (Research), Andrew Miller (Research & Plant Selections), Alice Tran (Project assistance).
Architecture: BODC, with Tue Dang, Vien Nguyen, Ha Nguyen and Khoa Tran.
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