Becamex Tokyu Hikari Complex | 2019-2022

Location: Binh Duong City, Vietnam
Architects: Niwa Architects Co., Ltd.
Client: Becamex Tokyu
Photographers: Hiroyuki Oki

This is a restaurant complex for 15 F&B brands integrating tenants, event spaces, observation deck, kid playground, public fountain, a huge lake, and beautiful leveraged landscape mixing with an edible garden, constructed in the center of Binh Duong New City, Vietnam. The New City is aiming to be a gateway for international trade and service exchange, as well as transfering of latest technology of science in South East Asia. The Complex’s concept, 'Made to Enlighten', is to show an example of the meaningful environmental approach in the new city center. The main challenges are composting for food waste, aquaponics, and edible garden. With green abundant landscape, Hikari Complex will become an educational space with entertainment, where many people gather and will be the best place to introduce sustainable approaches and ideas. Hikari will leade the city to the next level of a sustainable smart city.  

An edu-tainment space is an entertainment space with educational approach, combined with the restaurant complex concept. The landscape with abundant greenery and a central pond is designed for the center of learning with several approaches. The landscape covered by kind of edible fruits trees, providing comfortable shadow. The fruits will reflect the season and be harvested by visitors to enjoy. The restaurant food waste is collected and utilized to feed Black Soldier Fly and earthworm compost, which in return will become the food for fish in the center pond. Visitors are welcome to view and feed the earthworms in the compost room. The irrigation water from the fishpond supports the aquaponics idea of growing these plants. This was common practice in old Vietnamese houses or villages, but was removed when the city became modernized. For a sustainable era, the Hikari complex shows the potential of landscape to utilize urban space for a wealth of life and reduce garages for the environment. This will be an important message for future city landscape to consider and discover a more modern way to live.