(“Text as submitted by architect”)
Nguyen Tran Gia Linh
Born in 1995 in Vietnam, graduated from university with major in interior design, worked for many studios such as MIA Design Studio, Kukbo Design, Graham Taylor Designs.
Phan Nhat Hung
Born in 1991 in Vietnam, graduated from a local architecture university, worked for many studios such as MIA Design Studio, TAA Design, Steven Baeteman Studio.
Practice Ideology
A coffee shop renovated from 2 floors of a tube-house in Hue city. With the facade not too wide and the requirement to retain the entire structure of the house (the current owner still lives here) gave us too little “land” to create space. Therefore, we can only do the best in our range. First, as mentioned above, the width of this house is not too large, and it is located on a rather narrow and deserted street, so we wanted to design an interesting landmark to create attention and increase the emotions of passersby.
In Vietnam, a shophouse is a familiar definition, most of the houses are bordered on major roads that are used for business or lease business. However, land in the center is often very expensive, so these are mostly tube houses with narrow facades. To increase the effectiveness of advertising, business owners must expand the sign to the maximum, a billboard across the width of the house with a very large font size is common. Here, we still use this method, however, instead of leaving 1 large sign, I have divided it into 168 small compartments, each containing 1 cup of coffee with the name of the shop printed on it. This subdivision helps to keep the sign from being unpolished and boring, while still attracting attention. Behind each compartment, we use a small gap to balance the humidity inside and outside, avoid dew condensation, then seal that gap with metal mesh to prevent insects.
For the interior, we wanted to create the feeling that this is exactly a house renovated as a coffee shop. Ceilings, walls, floors use cement color as if we just removed the covered materials of the house. The selected stone is also gray. All these elements create a rustic and contrast with the white front sign. Yellow lights and green plants are used to balance with a limited palette and purposely lowering saturation, to increase the warmth and vitality of the interior.
From the overall framework to detailed expression, we aim for a balance between creativity and functionality, between simplicity and user emotions. All just to create a relaxing and enjoyable space for us to start a new day.
