Hoa is a cafe that used to operate nearly 15 years ago in Saigon – the time when pop culture music in the early 2000s and Hong Kong movies were one of the prevailing entertainment trends. After ten years of hiatus, Hoa café returns with a new look, bringing with it beautiful memories of an unforgettable time of the 8x – 9x generation.

The house was renovated from the old status quo with typical Vietnamese tube house construction, oh.hi STUDIO has created a gathering space that focuses on privacy through the layout and lighting positioning solution. Hoa cafe is divided into clusters with diverse sitting forms, from square tables, long tables to low-level sitting areas on bench, armchairs – thereby creating separation for each other. The privacy of the space is further emphasized by point lighting, which uses darkness to enhance the sense of distance of each seat.

Saigon’s memories of the 2000s play a core role in the design direction of Hoa café, the nostalgic footage and especially the vague feeling of reminiscing about a bygone era. We recreated that feeling through impromptu streaks of light, unmatched patches of wood or deliberately rows of old encaustic tiles.

The past, the nostalgic, though beautiful but still needs to be balanced by the epochality. That is the explanation for the appearance of cold tone metals or some patches of reflective material hidden back and forth in space. And then, an area of dark yellow light blushed by using the effect of colored cold curtains as a catalyst to transform the lamp light. The soft effect light layer but still personality can be seen as a beautiful conclusion at the end of the space. And the early memories of the 8x – 9x Vietnamese generation in Saigon are reproduced like that.