- Area: 800 m²
- Year: 2011
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Photographs:Hiroyukioki
Text description provided by the architects. Located in the city center of NhaTrang, LAM Café is the place where the local people and the tourists from every where can come to enjoy not only coffee but also the architectural space. The name of LAM, which means ‘louvers’ in English, expresses the structure and the architectural concept by itself.
The roof that has the shape of coconut leaves covers 350m2 of the 800m2 total area. The concept comes from the image of coconut trees, which is common in this coastal city. Wooden louveris considered as a main design language because the land wasrent in limited time so that the construction should be the fastest, cheapest and easy to remove.
The building is located in there sidential area that isnot stylish and tidy so that the roof is designed carefully to control and support the nice view. The roof contains three layers: coconut leaves – the lowest layer, tiling layer – the middle one and the last layer of fishing nets. In the future, this roof will be covered by plant to become a green roof.
Wooden louver system isnot only the aestheti celement butal so the solution for construction. Louvers are considered as a partition and a load-bearing component as well. The space created by louvers isnot too close as ‘box café’ or too open as ‘country side cafe’. The natural lighting and ventilation come through the system of wooden louvers bring the interesting feeling to each seat.
