Changes to Domestic Spaces and Home-Based Business in Ho Chi Minh City: A Case Study of Nguyen Thien Thuat Apartment Blocks

Abstract

This article examines the impact of home-based business on spatial changes and architectural transformation in old apartment buildings, locally called Chung Cu, an under-studied housing typology in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). This article elucidates how looking into local ideas and practices of domestic spaces with home-based businesses can broaden existing scholarship on home culture. The term ‘home-based business’ is used in this article to describe commercial and business activities run by local residents in their homes. This article analyzed and presented first-hand data in both textual and visual forms and suggests that given the historical and social changes, particularly since the 1960s, the resilience, and persistence of home-based business, as a constituent of local life in HCMC, have significantly contributed to the making and transformation of domestic spaces in the city.