The Proscenium is a small dessert restaurant located in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. The project is the renovation of a former residential building that was built as part of a large block redevelopment completed in the 1990’s. Dozens of row houses forming the block were build with similar decorative elements such as Greekish columns and moldings, most of which have vanished through the recent years of overdevelopment in the central commercial district, during which time the next trend has already been discovered. This illustrates how an architectural style is written and rewritten during the frantic economic growth that major Vietnamese cities are currently undergoing. Our project began with a reflection on this rapid trend cycle and ended by reclaiming the abandoned design with a new design element slid into the building.

The existing building is, as is often the case with Vietnamese houses, characterized by an over caution for security and a space-consuming central staircase. Our design intervention focused on changing these two elements within a limited budget.

(1) Interface

The process began with the transformation of the forecourt into a public pocket park, a type of communal element that the neighborhood is lacking. An original Sino-French wooden door was replaced with a fragmental glass window that splits the perception of the interior into multiple pieces. Simple counter passes through the window to draw attention from the street to the interior.

(2) Space

Our proposal was the rehabilitation of the staircase, transforming the largest space occupier into a core for creating new space, and distributing functions by stretching this element throughout the ground floor. For fear of being consumed as a momentary trend, the new occupant eliminated unnecessary decorative element. As a result, a chain of neutral objects, juxtaposed with the original classical ornamentations, organized the entire interior space.