The Maris Vung Tau: Where a Living Ecosystem Meets Coastal Luxury

A 23-Hectare Biophilic Resort Redefining Beachfront Development in Vietnam

Project: The Maris Vung Tau Location: Bai Sau Beach, Vung Tau, Southern Vietnam Scale: 23 hectares Programme: 192 luxury villas, 2 condotel towers (1,679 keys), 3 beach clubs, central lake, 450m pier Status: Under construction - completion 2027 Architect: Chi Tam Nguyen - TAMA Architecture Paris

A Fleet Facing the Pacific

Seen from the sea, The Maris reads like a fleet of contemporary ocean liners anchored at the edge of the Pacific - towers with sail-like double-skin facades, organic beach club volumes shaped like shells cast ashore by the tide, and at their centre, a sculptural windmill tower rising above a ribbon of water and tropical gardens.

This is not a resort that turns its back on its landscape. Every element of The Maris - its layout, its architecture, its ecosystem strategy - was designed to intensify the relationship between the built environment and the sea, the wind, the light, and the living world around it.

Vung Tau: A City at a Turning Point

To understand The Maris, you need to understand Vung Tau. Known to the French as Cap Saint-Jacques, this coastal peninsula 110 km south of Ho Chi Minh City has been a strategic harbour since the 14th century. Today it is one of the most beloved weekend escapes for Saigon's residents - celebrated for its dramatic topography where mountains descend directly to the sea, and for beaches like Bai Sau, one of the longest in the country.

In 2026, the opening of the new Long Thanh International Airport will fundamentally change Vung Tau's position: connecting it directly to international routes and transforming this historic pearl into a global tourism hub. The Maris was conceived with this future in mind — a resort scaled not for the domestic weekend market, but for the international traveller who expects world-class hospitality integrated into an authentic place.

The Green and Water Link: An Ecosystem as a Spine

The organising idea of The Maris is not a building - it is a landscape. A sinuous lake-river runs through the heart of the 23-hectare site, linking all programme elements along what the design calls the Green and Water Link: a continuous blue-green corridor of water, cascades, tropical plantings, and shaded pathways that draws residents and guests from the resort towers through the villas, past the beach clubs, and out onto the ocean itself.

This is not decorative landscaping. The central lake and its surrounding vegetation form a genuine ecological system - filtering air and water, providing acoustic buffering from the surrounding city, creating microclimates that reduce cooling loads across the resort, and establishing habitat corridors for local biodiversity. In a coastal site this sensitive, preserving and amplifying what nature already provides was treated as a design priority, not an afterthought.

Five Architectural Landmarks

The Moulin Rouge Tower. The symbolic heart of the resort. Rising 14.5 metres above the central landscape, this sculptural windmill tower is the one element of The Maris visible from across the bay - an instantly recognisable landmark that gives the resort its identity on the Vung Tau skyline. Open to the public, it houses a relaxation space and a 360° panoramic platform overlooking the entire Bai Sau bay and the Pacific beyond. It is both a beacon and an invitation.

The Coquillage Beach Clubs. Three organic volumes - each evoking a shell cast ashore after high tide - line the waterfront between the resort and the sea. Their forms are neither geometric nor arbitrary: they follow the logic of biomimicry, borrowing from the natural world to create structures that feel found rather than imposed. Oriented directly toward the open ocean, they give visitors the sensation of standing at the very threshold of the Pacific.

The Infinity Pool. At 2,225 m², the largest infinity pool in Vung Tau. Positioned at the edge of the property where land meets sea, it was designed to dissolve the horizon - a single continuous plane of water extending visually into the Pacific. A technical and experiential set piece.

The Horizon Pier. A 450-metre walkway extending from the central lake-river promenade directly into the sea. At its seaward end: a restaurant of singular architecture - described by the design team as a "spacecraft of the seas" - alongside a marina allowing guests to arrive by boat. The pier is both infrastructure and experience: a place to walk, to rest, to watch sunrise and sunset from the water itself.

The Condotel Towers. Two hotel towers - Alaric (598 keys, 15–18 floors) and Atlantic (1,081 keys, 15–18 floors) - anchor the resort at its landward edge. Every room in both towers has a sea view. Their facades are conceived as double-skin bioclimatic envelopes: sail-shaped screens that shade the living spaces from direct solar radiation while channelling natural ventilation through the building section. Atlantic includes a 4,700 m² events centre - three ballrooms, three meeting rooms - positioning The Maris as a major MICE destination for the region.

Design Passive, Live Actively

The Maris makes a clear argument: that luxury and ecological responsibility are not in tension - they reinforce each other.

The density of vegetation across the site does real work: it filters particulate pollution, moderates temperature through evapotranspiration, and reduces the acoustic intrusion of the surrounding city. The bioclimatic double-skin facades on the condotel towers reduce solar gain significantly, cutting the energy demand for cooling - the dominant energy cost in a tropical beachfront resort. The passive design of the beach clubs relies on natural cross-ventilation rather than mechanical systems. The central lake manages stormwater as part of a broader blue-green infrastructure strategy.

These are not greenwashing gestures. They are design decisions that directly improve the comfort, the economics, and the longevity of the resort.

A Project in Numbers

Total site 23 hectares
Luxury villas 192 units
Condotel Alaric 598 keys — ~60,000 m² GFA
Condotel Atlantic 1,081 keys — ~114,000 m² GFA
Total hotel keys 1,679 (all with sea view)
Infinity pool 2,225 m² — largest in Vung Tau
Horizon pier 450 metres
Events centre 4,700 m² (3 ballrooms)
Moulin Rouge Tower 14.5 m — 360° panoramic platform
Completion 2027

Why This Project Matters

The Maris Vung Tau is not simply a resort. It is an argument about how large-scale hospitality development can be done - how a 23-hectare programme can be organised around a living ecological system rather than against it; how landmark architecture can create genuine public value through a tower open to all visitors; how passive design strategies can reduce operating costs while improving guest comfort.

As Vung Tau prepares for its international debut with the opening of Long Thanh Airport, The Maris sets a benchmark for what the city's new generation of coastal development can aspire to be: ambitious in scale, generous in public gesture, and genuinely connected to the natural world that makes this peninsula remarkable.

The architecture sings when it listens to the place. Here, we tried to listen to the sea.

Chi Tam Nguyen is a French architect DPLG and founder of TAMA Architecture Paris. He previously founded TAMA Architects in Hanoi (2015–2023), where The Maris Vung Tau was conceived and designed. → tama-architecture-paris.fr