EIGH-T 

CieL Dining is the 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, through re-orienting the roof to direct its lowest point towards the entrance, in which results an intimate proportion. Oak door and plywood panels, use only at the recessed entrance, brings warmness to contrast to an austere structural form. The form is chamfered to create five-side façade, where visitors can see at least 2 faces simultaneous and widen the view to a neighborhood from the interior. The geometric exterior and landscape conceals the main concept in the interior.

 The waiting room at ground floor is where the customer 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 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. At 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 again 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 staffs can see the full Oculus.