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Architects: Eigh-T Architects
- Area: 600 m²
- Year: 2024
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Photographs:Hoang Le
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Lead Architects: Tu Phan
Text description provided by the architects. CieL Dining is an ambitious tasting menu fine dining restaurant by the acclaimed chef Viet Hong and his partner Thanh Liem. The main concept is developed around the name Ciel, which means "the sky" in French, nurtured through the owner's working period in Paris.
The architecture of the villa is through the process of defamiliarizing a typical pitched roof prototype, by re-orienting the roof to direct its lowest point towards the entrance, in which results an intimate proportion. Oak door and plywood panels, used only at the recessed entrance, bring warmness to contrast to an austere structural form. The form is chamfered to create a five-sided figure, where visitors can see 3 faces simultaneously, provoking the sense of three-dimensional and widening the view to a neighborhood from the interior. The geometric exterior and landscape conceal the main concept in the interior.
The waiting room on the ground floor is where the customer is directed to the counter dining or the common and private dining areas on the upper floor. The ground floor counter dining links with an open display kitchen, where the customers can see all the kitchen activities with the tropical garden background. At the center of the space lies a classic Oculus in the form of a cylinder, the main concept of the project. The cylinder tilted 12 degrees to elongate the light well. The experience of the space pivots around this diagonal cylinder.
On the ground floor, sun ray is captured on the internal surface and kitchen counters throughout the day. The slanted exterior form can be seen on the first floor, pressed against two rectangular structures to bring both the tension and complement between two types of geometries. A restaurant office on the attic floor is where the staff can see the full Oculus.
The kitchen fit-out is custom-made for the chef, with the two cooking counters on the side and two display and warm-up islands in the middle. The two islands are the working plane where customers can observe the process of making and decorating every dish.
