According to Jade Kim Nguyen, co-founder and CEO of design firm Module K, Vietnamese movie theatres have thrived in recent years in part because they offer a social experience. She has said that in Vietnam millennials and gen Z don’t go to the cinema just to watch a movie, they go in a group to hang out, to talk and spend an evening together. In short, movie theatres are, or need to become, destinations.

A millennial herself, Jade Nguyen knows what she talks about, and a recent movie multiplex project in the firm’s home base of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC aka Saigon) indicates that her clients think so as well. Module K, the design firm she co-founded with Nguyen Anh Huy in 2015, beat 30 other firms to design Beta Cinema Quang Trung, the Vietnamese Beta Group’s first movie theatre in southern Vietnam.

Minh Bui, the founder and CEO of Beta Group and also a millennial himself, wanted the movie complex to attract younger audiences and to be a destination for their evenings together, but he also wanted the design of the theatre to reflect pride in the landmarks of old Saigon. Module K reports that Minh Bui described his reasons for selecting Module K saying that “Module K’s strong design response and their passion made a big impact and matched our own.”

The seven-theatre, 1,000-seat complex opened earlier this year occupies 2,000 square metres (21,500 sq.ft) on the ground floor of an existing shopping centre at 645 Quang Trung in the Go Vap district of HCMC.

To appeal to younger audiences and their Instagram accounts the complex has a happy and funky retro feel. It certainly is doing more than merely serving as a place for movie posters, popcorn sales and movies. The designers have channelled several of old Saigon’s architectural landmarks in an art-deco/art-nouveau minimalist, two-dimensional style employing bright and bold pastelly colours of flamingo pink, peachy orange, turquoise and aqua.

The designers paid homage to the 19^th century city of Marie-Alfred Foulhoux, the beaux-arts-trained chief architect of French-occupied Saigon, but they refreshed the historic vibe by infusing it with modern urban buzz. Nguyen recognizes that many of the younger movie-goers will probably not even recognize the nods to the architectural landmarks but they are there nevertheless for those who wish to see them.

The arches of the complex echo the arched façade of Saigon Municipal Opera House – also known as Municipal Theatre of Ho Chi Minh City. It was designed in French colonial style by French architect Eugene Ferret as Opera de Saigon and shaped like the Opera Garnier in Paris. Flying pigeons ubiquitous around the Opera make an appearance in the movie theatre in the form of custom-designed pendant LED lights.

The double-height entrance hall of Beta Cinema reflects the city’s Central Post office recognized for its vaulted ceilings and unusual architecture of gothic, renaissance and French influences. It was designed by Alfred Foulhox himself and constructed in the late 19^th century when Vietnam was part of French Indochina.

The influences of the pastel pink and white interior of Tan Dinh Church, nicknamed aptly “the pink church” are also visible in the cinema especially in its asymmetrical columns. The church dates back to the colonial period with a mix of styles from neo-Romanesque to neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance. The colourful ticket counters and snack stands in Beta Cinema channel the riot of colours in the stalls of city’s largest market, the Ben Thahn, that sell everything from food to fabrics, souvenirs and handicraft.

With its 20 cinemas in northern Vietnam Beta Group is now actively expanding in the south. After completing Beta Cinema Quang Trung under budget and in just 35 days, Module K has been engaged to design also Beta Cinema Phú Quốc on Vietnam’s largest island. Hanoi-born, Harvard-educated Minh Bui is expanding Beta Media, the movie arm of his Beta Group that also includes food and beverage concepts, into film production and distribution. Tuija Seipell

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Who knew we would be thinking of the ordinary pleasure of going to a movie in our own city with almost the same desperate longing we used to daydream of lengthy luxury holidays in distant places? For now, it’s no movies and no airline travel until situation clears or eventually stabilizes.

In Hong Kong the circumstances are doubly difficult as the political turmoil is complicating the already Covid-shaken situation. Hong Kong has done well in controlling the virus so far but new cases are now confirmed daily and movie theatres are closed.

None of this stops us from admiring the ambitious new K11 Art House movie theatre operated by UA Cinemas and designed by Hong Kong-based Oft Interiors.

The 6,034 square-metre (65,000 sq.ft) cinema complex is the flagship theatre of K11 MUSEA, the pioneering retail and entertainment concept that opened in 2019 at Hong Kong’s Victoria Dockside.

More than a decade in planning and development by the K11 Group, founded by local entrepreneur Adrian Cheng in 2008, K11 MUSEA is a massive waterfront revitalization project on the historic site of Holt’s Wharf in the busy urban Tsim Sha Tsui area on the Kowloon Peninsula. K11 MUSEA has been called an art mall and a cultural retail destination, and while its full potential has not yet been realized, the artistic and creative focus is encouraging.

Oft Design founders CM Jao and Ken Cheung and project design team members Shanny Cheung and Tobey Ngai created a multiplex of nine separate multi-purpose theatres with seating capacity ranging from the 30-seat VIP House to the 376-seat IMAX theatre. Several restaurant and bar options and Hong Kong’s first pop-up store for digital music service MOOV are also included.

Oft has designed several movie theatres in China and Hong Kong, including another UA Cinema in the West Gate Mall in Shanghai, but the K11 Art House complex is distinctively different from all of them.

With the stonework and the dark wood beams, floors and fixtures, the designers are referring to the Swiss Alps and the building styles and material of that area. With the distinct style the designers are instilling a sense of intimacy and luxury to the movie-going experience that is so often just a non-descript fast food-scented routine. Right now, we’d be happy with any old cinema outing, but eventually, the stakes will be higher as new, ambitious contenders like these merge. Tuija Seipell

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The Moon CLUB is a magnificent nightclub that opened early this year in the vibrant Dlouhá street area of Prague.

What makes this 740 square-metre (7.965 sq. ft) space magnificent is the fact that it is a smart restoration of a former bank. Restorations offer such an incredible opportunity to conjure up something new by combining the old with the new. Sounds simple but isn’t. But when done right, it beats any brand-new creation. 

The elegant moon-inspired design of the Moon CLUB is the result of cooperation between two local firms, Formafatal and Machar&Teichman.

The operators of the club are brothers Michal and Vaclav Matousek who also operate three Nebe nightclubs in Prague.

They knew what they wanted and Dagmar Stepanova and Katarína Varsová of Formafatal and Pavel Machar and Radek Teichman of Machar&Teichman were up to delivering it.

During the year-long design and construction project to turn an old bank with a glass atrium into a cool nightclub for 400 people, the team faced some challenges.

One of the key issues was acoustics. While the inner courtyard provides a decidedly key cool component to the club, it was also an acoustical challenge. The team solved the acoustical problems, for example, with doubled roof glazing, acoustic buffer wall constructions and special plasters.

Various rooms and areas – from secluded seating nooks to spectacular viewing areas to the bar and dance floor – each have their own atmosphere and detailing.

Patinaed metal sheets, dark burned wood, old stained mirrors, ornamental paintings and velvet-upholstered furniture in several colours give each area its own feel. A common link through all of the areas is the patinaed painting of walls.

Our favourite aspect of the club is the lighting and the intriguing and varying sight-lines created by it. Most of the lighting was custom-created for this project including the central ‘chandelier’ in the entrance lobby with the arched mirror.

The custom-created central bar in the courtyard is clad in golden corrugated metal with a moon silhouette floating above it. Three big round pendant lights and groups of metal pendants above it create a starry-night reflection on the glass ceiling.

We also love the lighting of the Alchymista bar on the second floor. The key component of the mysterious light effect here are the brass panels hanging above the bar. They were treated with a corrosive agent to create patina and then cut with ornamentation. A straight ‘beam’ of light cuts through the upper part of the panels and filters down toward the bar counter. Tuija Seipell.

Address: Moon Club & Lounge, Dlouhá 26, Prague 1- Staré Město, Czech Republic

Images: Jakub Skokan, Martin Tůma / BoysPlayNice

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Zürich, Switzerland-based Dryer-Smith Fray  have recently completed the concept and interior design for Club Lexy, a cool new nightclub located at Militärstrasse 84, the rough and raw area  between the Zürich main railway station and the Longstrasse red-light district..

Behind this new club are six partners, local movers and shakers of the club scene, DJs Dejan Radojevic and Jerome Bachmann, Vagabundo Bar operators (in Kalkbreite) Silas Huber, Mario Egloff and Flavio Muriello, and formerly of  Club Cabaret Branimir Brani Macukic.

They took barely three months from the idea to take over the former Latin Palace club space to actually opening the doors in early April.

The designers Gian Frey and James Dyer-Smith had very little time to take the clients’ desire to go for a modern, sexy and raw feel and transform it into something new for the Zürich club scene.

They played with the idea of kinesis – a movement or activity in response to stimulus.

In-laid LED lights, a solid concrete DJ booth and a gorgeous dark blue wallpaper set the tone. Cage-like seating and the ever-present triangular pattern create a slightly sinister and unsettling  atmosphere.

The local media called it ‘subculture electronic’ but we think it is more like red-light district turned Blue LED-light district. – Tuija Seipell.

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Off-hand, one might not think of an ancient Bulgarian town at the foot of the Pirin Mountains as the location of a night club whose design was inspired by the Disney science fiction movie TRON:Legacy.

Yet the Flash Club in Bansko fits right in with the smart set of this European ski resort that is also known for its jazz and pop music scene.

Sofia, Bulgaria-based Studio Mode with chief designer and founder Svetoslav Todorov at the helm created an eerie pulsating and swirling atmosphere through the use of reflecting surfaces and massive circular forms.

State-of-the art sound and lighting schemes complete the illusion of an otherworldly experience .

VIP podiums link up with the bar through beams of light while the reflections off the surfaces amplify the space and produce an impression of infinity.

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The designers of the Mascara nightclub in Sofia, Bulgaria, took their cues from the whimsical story of Alice in Wonderland and from the storied building of the National Opera and Ballet of Bulgaria.

Founded in 2003 by interior designer Svetoslav Todorov, Sofia-based Studio Mode has designed several night clubs, but Club Mascara is special as it is located on the underground level of the National Opera and Ballet, a building dating back to 1953.

All the drama, props and illusions of theatre and opera combined with the confusing yet amusing madness of Alice in Wonderland gave the designers a rich palette of ideas.
They chose a black-and-white colour scheme to serve as the backdrop for the juxtaposition of round and angular forms, transparent and solid walls, illusionary props and real.

Everything appears to be slightly confusing – vertical and horizontal, up and down, soft and hard, solid and pliable. The bar divides the scene into two parts – the main theater where everything is happening, and the VIP area that is hidden and secretive.

The lighting provides the moving colour at night when the club is full and adds to the baffling feel of things getting curiouser and curiouser by the hour. – Tuija Seipell.

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Hong Kong’s already vibrant and versatile bar scene keeps receiving additions that would be right at home in any large global hub. In the Central business district, chock-full of banks, the design-aware and quality-conscious financial wizards now have yet another bar/club where they can spend all those gazillions.

The whiskey bar foxglove, at the Printing House on Duddell Street, is the second bar opened by the Ming Fat House owner team of Jonathan Bui (a Canadian), Eric Lam (an American) and Shakib Pasha (from Hong Kong.)

To provide an environment worthy of their demanding prospective patrons, they invited local architect Nelson Chow Chi-Wai, principal and founder of NC Design & Architecture, to iterate the story of a wealthy adventurer, Frank Minza who, as the owners coyly say, may or may not be a fictional character. To thicken the plot they add that he was the illegitimate son of a somewhat luckless entrepreneur from Hong Kong’s colonial days.

So there is a touch of high-end shadiness and secrecy in foxglove that really is a lovely hybrid: A masculine combo of an ocean liner, airplane, gentlemen’s club and speakeasy.

The entrance isn’t just a plain old door, in fact there is no bar entrance visible. Instead, you walk into an umbrella shop where exquisite specimens of luxury brollies are displayed in custom-design glass cabinets. Find the right silver handle, touch it, and a secret door opens to the ‘air plane’ that seats 80. A marble-topped cocktail bar connects to the dining section.

A VIP room seats 32 guests and resembles a first-class dining car of a luxury train and the VVIP room brings you to an intimate gentleman’s library where time seems to have stopped and money is still made of paper.

The owner’s first Hong Kong bar, Mrs. Pound, opened a year ago in Sheung Wan. It tested the secret speakeasy entrance concept by offering a Chinese stamp shop as the entry environment. In that case, the story tells that Mrs.

Pound was a burlesque dancer who fell in love with a Chinese stamp shop owner. In an interview, Jonathan Bui was quoted as saying that the hidden entrance and secrecy work especially well in Hong Kong because ‘it is so different from the typical in-your-face shopfronts.’ – Tuija Seipell.

Photography: Dennis Lo Designs

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‘We eat with our eyes’….
Let’s take a minute and really consider what this means. Traditionally we have associated this statement with the freshness of our food; the moment you can see all the amazing components of a dish in their individual state and the vast array of colours they collectively offer.

The truth is though, that freshness is in everything around us, it’s in our food, our fashion, our music, our art, our ideas, our attitudes and of course our architecture. What becomes particularly exciting is when there is a distinct and clear connection of freshness between two or more of these aspects at any one given time and the ability it has to excite our multitude of senses.

Bar Nou is exactly this, a clash of freshness; fresh food, fresh design and fresh architecture. Located in a city known well for its unorthodox and unique architecture, this Barcelona statement piece is ‘light and fresh’ in every sense of the term. A product of emerging architectural design quartet Maio, this small but eloquent tapas bar pays homage to the traditional Catalonian dish of ‘pa amb tomàquet’. Which for those who are unfamiliar is the amazing combination of toast, diced tomatoes, and top-shelf olive oil with garlic and salt; simple yet highly appealing, much like the design.

Whilst the team from Maio have managed to achieve a design which is blissfully simple, the more you break it down it’s actually full of complexities. For example the timber clad ceiling which has been arranged like a vault gives the bar an interesting sense of proportion and provides an air of ‘domesticity’, which comes back to the idea of tomatoes on toast at home. The complexity of the construction becomes even more evident through in the way the ceiling intersects with the front façade, making it an interesting feature rather than hidden, which opposes the usual way in which roofing structure is treated.

Maio have been very careful in exploring the scenographic qualities of the bar and have done this through the use of warping timber, mirrors and that unique ceiling design. By doing this they have been able to achieve a somewhat endless space within a small hole in the wall; which challenges the notion of compact European design and in particular Barcelona which has small sized city blocks to operate within and usually presents many design challenges.

The menu mimics the design and vice versa which always creates an interesting concept when two creative entities communicate directly with each other. The pa amb tomàquet is the hero and is served in a contemporary manner. This is a strong and consistent theme as it was a request of the owner that Bar Nou would be architected in such a way that it combined contemporary design with traditional approaches.
Honouring the old in a new way is what makes this project particularly exciting. How the pa amb tomàquet is prepared in itself is more like an act of ritual, as it’s done at what is best described as a dj-booth-looking-alter placed within the core of the space. An interesting concept which becomes more evident through the overwhelming use of marble which is most widely used in churches within Spain.

The furnishings are modern and sleek with hints of traditional Spanish domestic tradition. The lighting is purposeful and well thought out, from the down lighting over each table to the vibrant neon pictographs on the front façade which depict pictures of wineglasses, a carafe, a tomato, a loaf of bread and so cleverly draws the eyes of passers-by.
‘We eat with our eyes’, a concept that Bar Nou and the design team from Maio have now forced us to consider in a whole new light. – David Mousa.

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The work of the Finland-born, Los Angeles -educated Joanna Laajisto is drawing our attention for the second time this year. In January, we wrote about her Finlandia Caviar restaurant in Helsinki.

This time, we are fascinated by the classy drama she’s created in the Le Roy nightclub and ball room/party space located on the second floor at the König corner (the corner named after the well-established, storied restaurant König) in Helsinki.

Much of the corner in downtown Helsinki’s main restaurant area has been under renovation and several restaurants have now re-opened. Among them is not just the second-floor Le Roy but also Michel downstairs, also designed by Laajisto and owned by the Center-Inn group that operates over a dozen restaurants in Helsinki.

Le Roy opened just in time for the serious party-time kick-off of First of May this year. Laajisto has retained the character of the original building, designed in 1982 by architect Karl August Wrede. Wrede was the architect of the entire passage located between the North Esplanade and Aleksanterinkatu streets and known as the Old Trade Passage, and in more recent years as the ‘Granny Tunnel’ referring to the ladies of certain age spending time sipping bubbly in the many restaurants.

Laajisto has allowed the large windows of the building to dictate much of the feel of the space. There is more natural light than in a typical night club and her lighting choices add to the dramatic play of dark and light.
The dark wood flooring, wood paneling, dark-hued furnishings and original fittings, such as mirrors and sconces, are beautifully enhanced by the natural light with the overall effect suggesting a space that has known many stories and parties in the past of the capital city.

Laajisto selected the additional lighting from the collections of the Swedish Rubn and London-based (and Germany and Sweden manufactured) Atelier Areti. Some lighting fixtures were custom-created for Le Roy.

The round marble tables come from Frankfurt-based e15 and the lounge chairs and sofas are by B&B Italia. – Tuija Seipell.

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It’s Asian cuisine engineered by a Cuban born and raised chef done with a Latin twist. It speaks true to the character of New York City as its innovative, appeals to the senses and runs the fine line between sophisticated and whimsical. There’s a representation through the food of one man’s dream to make it big in New York, this man being chef Luis Pous but more importantly it holds a much larger significance within a unique social context.

The menu is exquisite and genuinely original. From black bean & plantain empanadas to ginger & papaya marinated palomilla, there’s something for every persons taste. What’s most fascinating is how chef Pous has found intricate and delicate connections between two cuisines which traditionally have never mixed. It’s a classic example of art imitating life as the worlds of innovation and cultural diversity have originated from within a social context and transferred into an exciting gastronomical experience. It’s the New York mentality which has allowed such an amazing thing to occur.

The vision and inspiration behind the menu is particularly interesting as it’s an exploration by chef Pous into the evolution of Cuban cuisine. His belief being that the menu he has developed is a representation of where Cuban food would be had they had access to a wider range of global ingredients within the past 50 years.

Food is only really half of this amazing tale though. The other 50% is in Asia de Cuba’s sleek and modern design. Its clean, minimal, classical and a great interpretation of old Havana within a modern context. Conceived by renowned designer Rafael de Cárdenas this beautiful layout has characteristics of 1950’s Hollywood, it’s a little ‘mad men’, somewhere cool to escape the streets in salvation of a good drink and a nice meal.

The design evokes a seductive and hazy feeling which speaks true to Havana’s gloried nightlife past. What Cárdenas has done so cleverly is managed to incorporate Asia de Cuba’s personality back into the design without making it overcomplicated. There’s touches of Cuba with Asian influences. This in many ways mimics how chef Pous has designed the menu and makes the whole experience even more special.

It’s no surprise that Cárdenas has been commissioned by the likes of Barneys New York, Baccarat, Cartier, Nordstrom, Nike, Ford Models, and HBO.

Culture, food, cocktails and unique tastes; all within one of the most active metropolises in the world. Its original, new and ambitious; a perfect addition to the cultural landscape of New York City. – David Mousa.

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