The Presidential
Club
Location: Saigon, Vietnam
Dates: 2012–2013
Overview: A private club on one of Saigon's first modern towers.
The Palace was designed by Ngô Viết Thụ, first Vietnamese laureate of the Grand Prix de Rome.
Completed in 1966, this 1950s-modernist palace was woven with auspicious Chinese characters in its plan. Its spirit belonged to the era of Madame Nhu, the de facto first lady of South Vietnam, who reinvented the áo dài and held court in the era's last brilliance, before the fall.
“That energy of the 60s, just before the fall of Saigon, was the material of the project.”
The timber pillars, the stone bamboo screen, the volumes and horizontal lines, the terrazzo floors, the lacquered woods of Nguyễn Văn Triêm, the 60s furniture, lifted thirteen floors above the city.
A complete interior and identity programme. Delivered 2013. A mirror, in altitude, of the Independence Palace below.
