Architect：Takashi Niwa Architects

Location：Hai Phong, Haiphong, Vietnam; | ;

Project Year：2020

Category：Restaurants

Hai Phong is a logistics and industrial hub with the largest terminal port in Northern Vietnam. It is a port city at the mouth of the Red River, about 100km away from Hanoi. The project, named “Ark Pavilion for Pizza 4P’s” is designed as a standalone building at the corner of a large newly built shopping mall.

This project is conceived as a symbolic monument to capture both the unique background and values of the city and restaurant - Hai Phong as a port and industrial city, as well as Pizza 4P’s value of sustainable dining.

It is an ark pavilion where the history and memories of the city are embraced and displayed to the diners and visitors.

The project is in a triangular site, the Southeastern side of the huge three-story building with a total floor area of ​​about 160,000 square meters.

The access is designed as a three-dimensional landscape with the main entrance being located on the second floor.

One approaches the restaurant by gently ascending to the flower garden. The visitors are then greeted by a tall atrium - 1.5 times higher than the typical mall’s ceiling height, creating a striking entrance to the restaurant.

Above a pair of pizza ovens located in the heart of the restaurant, 9 North-facing skylights with varying sizes provide soft and gentle natural light into the dining area. 

Benjamin trees are planted next to every window, which will eventually grow taller to shade the building from intense tropical sunlight.

The city of Hai Phong, with its terminal port, has many industrial materials available. Space was realized by using these materials together with natural light.

Upon arrival, visitors are greeted with curtains made of light metal chains and layers of creeper plants. The metal chains are also used on the façade, railings, and supports for the creepers. 

Lighting fixtures are recycled from robust marine lighting found in the dockyard. 

The terrazzo floor around the pizza ovens is embedded with a pattern made of diagonally cut brass rods at every 50cm interval, which is also applied to the ovens, adding intricate details that evoke the industrial atmosphere in the city. 

A brick feature wall behind the ovens acts as a textured backdrop to the dining area. Local fire bricks are used and arranged in simple yet dynamic pattern. These patterns change depending on where one stands and direction of the light, like ripples in the ocean.

This restaurant is an Ark Pavilion that embraces its local culture and history, intended to preserve, represent, and educate its identity to the future generation.

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