Assembling craft and ‘waste’ materials: Pizza 4P’s Lotte Mall West Lake

This project takes inspiration from numerous neighbouring craft villages to Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, which has preserved their culture and craftsmanship throughout generations. Located on the ground floor of a new shopping centre, the architects wish to embody a ‘contrasting’ spirit of contemporary Hanoi with local artisanship by using various craft materials, including terracotta, stone, rattan and bamboo, as well as making use of ‘waste’ material from diverse sources.

Spotlighting artisans and recycled materials

The restaurant is divided into indoor and outdoor areas. Inside, visitors can experience spaces with different ceiling heights, varying lighting conditions and multiple seating options, providing different levels of intimacy.

The geometric shapes of the ceiling feature diverse patterns and textures from woven bamboo and rattan panels that demarcate the seating areas. However, these demarcations are not fixed, thus allowing flexible seating arrangements suitable for the restaurant’s operational needs. Each woven ceiling panel has been meticulously handcrafted by artisans from rattan and bamboo. Colourful artworks also hang from the ceilings, commissioned specifically for the restaurant by Vietnamese artists, using recycled plastic bags and traditional dó (mulberry) paper.

Interior decoration materials have been sourced from recycled origins. Broken porcelain plates, old restaurant staff uniforms, beer bottles, etc., were collected from other Pizza 4P’s restaurants and used for walls, floors, partitions, and curtains.

The floor surface uses a combination of recycled materials from construction waste, including broken bricks, terracotta shards, glass fragments and stone pieces, crafted into terrazzo tiles. The seating areas are thus defined not only by the overhead ceiling mass but also by the diverse shapes of the seven different floor areas.

A ’green and blue’ garden

The outdoor area also functions as a community garden, shaded by an overhead structure comprising four soft rectangular blocks. These blocks are made from woven bamboo panels, recycled wood and steel. All four blocks rest on a scaffold structure reinforced with I-beams and a column made from woven steel rods. Local contractors were employed with an ‘unconventional’ approach that leaves imperfections in some construction details—something that is cherished and welcomed in this project.

The boundary of the outdoor space is defined by a water surface and an aquaponic system, providing vegetables for the restaurant’s use, alongside other types of plants. This system enhances the cooling capacity of the space and serves as an educational area, which is especially enjoyed by children. The restaurant also has plans to expand the play spaces for children in the future by making use of its upper structure areas.

Through the overall assemblage, the architects hope to not only provide a comfortable resting space for visitors and highlight local craftsmanship but also convey a message about the potential of utilising familiar, inexpensive and ‘waste’ materials in a creative spirit.

PROJECT DATA

Project Name
Pizza 4P’s Lotte Mall West Lake

Location
Phú Thượng, Vietnam

Completion Date
2023

Gross Floor Area
400 square metres

Client/Owner
Pizza 4P’s

Architecture Firm
ODDO architects

Lead Team
Nguyen Duc Trung; Marek Obtulovic

Design Team
Nguyen Manh Hung; Tran Thi Hang; Robert Stubbs; Nguyen Thi Minh Anh

Photos
Trieu Chien

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