Project Name: CHUK Heritage Cafe

Location: Thao Dien District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Design Team: 6717 Studio

Total Floor Area: 350 m²

Completion: 2024

Photography: Hiroyuki Oki

Feature: 6717 Studio's "CHUK Heritage Cafe" demonstrates how innovative curved roof configuration strategies and masterful cultural integration design philosophy fusion techniques can transform a corner building renovation in Ho Chi Minh City's Thao Dien district into a culturally profound destination connecting past and present through architectural expression.

This 350-square-meter cafe dramatically occupies a prominent corner position at the intersection of Street 38 and Xuan Thuy in Thao Dien, presenting itself as a profound meditation on contemporary cultural preservation, heritage reinterpretation, and urban transformation. Through carefully considered spatial organization and traditional architectural inspiration, it creates a gathering experience that seamlessly weaves Vietnamese tea, coffee, and banh mi offerings with environmental sensitivity.

The project's most compelling design feature lies in its fundamental reimagining of traditional Vietnamese architectural elements. The expansive curved roof inspired by traditional architecture arranged around the corner building serves not only as an architectural focal point but becomes the core of spatial connection, ensuring visitors experience unique transitions between interior and exterior spaces within the sheltered site. This spatial strategy creates continuous dialogue between traditional heritage and contemporary urbanism, achieving a visual and functional bridge effect.

6717 Studio's design language fluently expresses contemporary culturally responsive architectural aesthetics, employing traditional Vietnamese elements such as shaded verandas, reflective water surfaces, and low seating to redefine urban cafe experiences. The extending roof system connecting to the second floor is innovatively used to create a breezy veranda offering flexible and refreshing experiences while cleverly serving multiple roles including attracting attention, fostering streetscape interaction, and framing spatial sequences. This bold integration strategy not only adds cultural depth to spaces but cleverly accommodates the complex functional demands of modern integrated cafe and food service operations.

Most remarkably, the architects create emotional transitions between different functional zones through clever manipulation of dual material narratives of "tradition" and "modernity." The "tradition" layer provides natural materials including wood, terrazzo, raw concrete, and handcrafted ceramic tiles fostering simplicity and familiarity; the "modernity" layer creates strategically placed mirrors and glass elements enhancing spatial experience and obscuring structural columns to create open, coherent interiors. These two layers complement each other, appearing from specific angles like harmonious cultural dialogues, creating an atmosphere where heritage preservation and contemporary innovation intersect.

Spatial strategy continues this harmonious coexistence design philosophy between culture and progress. The methodology of retaining existing structural framework while introducing comprehensive transformation facilitates response to functional and aesthetic demands, while the curved roof vocabulary extends to the third floor creating a tranquil private workspace with vaulted ceilings and open glass windows. The multi-level spatial organization promotes diverse experiences from bustling cultural hub at street level to serene retreat above, ensuring rich multi-sensory connections to nature and meaningful emotional journeys for every guest, perfectly suited for brand storytelling and cultural identity preservation amid rapid urbanization.

Design Team - 6717 Studio stands as a distinguished multidisciplinary architectural practice in Ho Chi Minh City, specializing in architectural design, interior design, and civil construction since its establishment in the early 2010s. Under the leadership of Principal Architect Le Viet Hoi, the firm has developed a refined design methodology that synthesizes Vietnamese vernacular traditions with contemporary architectural language, producing spatially sophisticated and culturally resonant built environments.

6717 Studio brings exceptional cultural sensitivity design perspectives and deep understanding of sustainable development approaches to architectural practice. The practice has garnered recognition for its commitment to seamlessly integrating Vietnamese traditional architectural elements with modern design principles and pursuing balance between cultural preservation and contemporary innovation. Le Viet Hoi, as the firm's leader, has cultivated a distinctive design philosophy emphasizing climatic responsiveness, material authenticity, and spatial continuity.

The firm's design philosophy emphasizes that architecture should transcend pure formal aesthetic limitations, designed not merely to satisfy visual requirements but to evolve organically with site cultural context and environmental conditions. Through deep attention to traditional Vietnamese architectural elements such as shaded verandas, reflective water surfaces, and natural materials, working across diversified projects spanning residential, hospitality, and commercial typologies, they believe the best design results from site-specific expression through rigorous cultural reading and contextual sensitivity. 6717 Studio believes design should serve as a carrier of cultural heritage and contemporary innovation, creating unique experiential environments through strategic material selection and spatial orchestration.

Beyond practice, the firm maintains strong project execution capabilities through collaborative approaches with the design team including Dang Thanh Bao and Nguyen Van Dong, and a technical team composed of Le Hoang Nam and Nguyen Ngoc Thien. Through thoughtful integration of cultural heritage with contemporary architectural form, natural material application, and practice-tested sustainable architectural wisdom, 6717 Studio has established itself as a significant contributor to contemporary Vietnamese architectural discourse, creating architectural works that are both culturally responsive and embrace modern design vision.

The studio's design excellence has garnered significant recognition through prestigious awards. Their residential expertise earned the National Architecture Award 2018 Bronze in the single-family house category for Khánh House. In hospitality design, Hoi An Ơi Villa received the National Architecture Award 2021 Bronze in the hotel and resort category, while Trúc Lâm Anh Retreat was honored with the KOHLER Bold Design Award 2021 in the tourism-resort category. The firm's representative works demonstrate sophisticated cultural analysis capabilities, site sensitivity, and innovative structural solutions that preserve Vietnamese architectural identity amid rapid urbanization while addressing contemporary design imperatives, positioning the practice as a leading voice in contemporary Vietnamese architecture on the international stage.