CASE STUDY
NightPark Saigon Season 2
P2 Park, Phu My Hung, Ho Chi Minh City2026
Q.
What would an outdoor space look like that makes rainy days something to enjoy?
Large township developments are moving fast in Ho Chi Minh City, especially in the suburbs and new urban centres. They come with parks and other outdoor spaces, but in a city where half the year is rainy season, those parks go largely unused. Working with Nomura Real Estate Vietnam, which develops townships, and the local design studio studio anettai, NEWSKOOL ran a hands-on research project on how to make townships people love.
A.
We added a light plaza and a rain playground to a park in Vietnam's rainy season.
Not sheltering from the rain, but playing with it
Nomura Real Estate Group believes the value of a town is made not when the buildings are finished, but by the quality of life that begins there. The park became a place to find out how public space can stay comfortable for residents through the rainy season and after dark.
studio anettai set two principles: light architecture, and treating rain itself as something positive. Not a shelter from the rain, but a playground for enjoying rain and night. Researching cases at home and abroad, we touched only two spots: the paved plaza and the area around the pavilion. Where Season 1 was about residents growing a garden together, this time the question was squarely how to spend the rainy season.
Catch it on the roof, filter it, pump it, play
Rain Park starts from lu nước, the large jars used to store rainwater in the Mekong Delta. Beside the pavilion we placed a roughly 20-metre rain-collecting structure: rain caught on the roof is filtered and can be pumped by hand to play with. An observation tank shows the filtering.
Water guns, mist, a shallow pool and a water table at the entrance. Filtered rainwater feeds the water play and pumps; the mist and pool use clean supply water. The more it rains, the more water there is to play with.
A light made in this city, and repairable in this city
In the Light Plaza we placed Ramiel Lamp, light cubes made with mài, a lighting workshop in Ho Chi Minh City. The starting question: what outdoor structure is kind to children, glows beautifully in the dark and stands up to tropical weather? The octahedron was chosen as something to walk around, not an obstacle to jump over. One light sits inside, wrapped in translucent blue panels, and the cubes can be rearranged. We worked with mài so that it would be made in this city and repairable in this city.
During the run, watching how residents used the space, we added small yellow chairs and tables, stickers explaining the cubes, and lanterns. There were acoustic sets and mini live shows at night, and from October a treasure hunt: collect stickers in the Rain Park, then arrange the cubes in the Light Plaza.
When the rain started, the pavilion became an activity room
On the evening of 9 September, when rain began, two families took shelter in the pavilion. Staff handed out raincoats and umbrellas, and as soon as the rain eased the children started playing, a father soaking himself alongside them. One parent said they would rather their children play outside, cold and rainy as it was, than look at a phone. Still, plenty of parents did not want their children to get wet.
In heavy rain, the pavilion became an activity room: a meditation group, children colouring, a couple stretching all moved under the roof, and when the rain stopped the children went back to the Rain Park. Residents added their own rules to hopscotch, high-school students practised dance, a child drummed on a cube to call friends over, and parents pointed at the Rain Park signs to explain the water cycle.
Rain on 39 of 59 days. Light alone did not hold people
The park ran from 4 September to 1 November 2026, daily from 3 to 8 pm. It rained on 39 of the 59 days (counted from operations and observation records, with weather-data estimates for the last few days). There was a week when a power cut stopped the pumps, and days when the park flooded.
People gathered at the Rain Park's water table and in the pavilion on rainy days. As in Season 1, children were the entry point and parents stayed. In the Light Plaza, though, when there was only light, people took a photo and walked on; they stayed when there was live music or the treasure hunt. What held people was not the light but a clear role and purpose for the place. Asked at the closing whether it should continue, 24 residents gave an average of 4.50 out of 5 — answers from people who came to the exhibition, so the figure leans favourable.
Next, a township in the north
At the closing from 30 October to 1 November, we exhibited photos, records and night footage from the 59 days, with three nights of live music by local artists. It rained all day on 31 October, but the exhibition and programme carried on, and on the clear final evening people came back.
What we learned carries on to a new township in the north.
INFO
- Host
- Nomura Real Estate Vietnam (NREV)
- Venue
- Phu My Hung Development
- Location
- P2 Park, Phu My Hung, Ho Chi Minh City
- Dates
- 4 September – 1 November 2026 (59 days, daily 3–8 pm)
SCOPE
- Business design
- Planning & communication design
- Operations
CREDIT
- Host
- Nomura Real Estate Vietnam (NREV)
- Venue
- Phu My Hung Development
- Planning & operations
- NEWSKOOL LLC
- Space & furniture design
- studio anettai
- Light objects
- mài
- Construction
- Metta
- Support
- GIEO Collective / HOAN CAFE / ATMAN YOGA
- Live
- melunn / trangtraitraicay / RIE / HOAN CAFE
- Photography
- APSA
