Bar 4P’s

A year and a half ago, I made “Pizza 4P’s” as my first work in Ho Chi Minh City. Thankfully, the restaurant has been so successful and had a chronic shortage of seats. This is an expansion project to add a waiting bar, pizza oven and more seats. Considering the balance between the existing restaurant and the expanding one, I wanted to go beyond customer’s expectation with an audacious space configuration to fit this aspiring restaurant. In particular, I placed an open bar taking advantage of high ceiling on the front. The ceiling gets lower as you step forward and the floor height rises with a slope. It brings customers to calm seats as if wrapping them. Main compositions of the space are the combined arched ceiling and marble walls, the purple floor which is the symbol color of this restaurant, and the bar counter with crashed tiles. I was a stranger a year and a half ago and did not know anything about this area but made a restaurant at one stretch. After that, I have got experiences of creation in Vietnam, and the client has been learning of restaurant business more and more in the field. Those experiences made us to pay attention to many concerns and issues which we did not think at that time, so we had plenty of times of the meetings to solve it. It results in making several designs and taking me a half year to create 50㎡ restaurant. I hope that those time and efforts spent on the project brings a joy to customers. (Joe Chikamori / 07BEACH architectural design studio)

【Bar 4P’s】
Location : 8/13 Le Thanh Ton, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Open : November 21st, 2012
Designer : 07BEACH architectural design studio Joe Chikamori
Floor area : 50.4㎡
Capacity：21seats
Photo：DECON PHOTO STUDIO　Oki Hiroyuki

1年半前、ホーチミンでの初仕事で「Pizza 4P’s」を作った。有り難いことに店は大繁盛しており、慢性的に席数が不足している。今回は、その店の隣にBar、窯、客席を増設した。既存店とのバランスを考慮しつつ、より大体な空間構成でゲストの期待を上回りたいと考えた。具体的には、手前に高い天井を生かした開放的なBarを、奥に行くほど天井が下がり、斜路で床が上がり、その先に包み込まれるような空間を作りたいと考えた。仕上げは主にアーチ天井とそれと一体になった壁に貼った大理石、この店のカラーである床の紫、そしてカウンターに貼ったクラッシュタイル。知らない土地で何も分からず一気に作り上げた1年半前。その後ベトナムで物づくりの経験を重ね、クライアントとはレストランビジネスの理解を日々現場で深めてきた。それ故、当時持たなかった迷いや懸念が浮かんできたが、その度打ち合わせを重ねた。幾度も設計し直し、50㎡の店を作るのに半年掛かった。費やしたものがゲストの喜びになって返ってきたらうれしい。（近森穣／07BEACH）