Halong Bay
Auckland International Airport, New Zealand
The material palette was deliberately limited to natural timber, Rattan and metal finishes typical of the Asian coastal resort while balancing these off carefully against the rich turquoise floor.
Halong bay is a new concept which we developed for our clients as they expand their Asian food offer to include a new Vietnamese category. The name derives from the popular and beautiful Halong Bay area, which is a huge tourist attraction. The tenancy posed several design challenges: to start, it is a very narrow site which is sandwiched between Hayama Japanese restaurant which our client owns and a large burger tenancy next door.
Tables are shared with planter dividers to enable more than one party to occupy them, as space was extremely limited. We sought to decorate the large flat wall we were presented with by neighbours by adding some light-box signs that were reminiscent of the sort of street market and food store signage typical of Vietnam’s cities. We did the graphics for these ourselves. Neon was used to also reference Asian food store signage in general.
The material palette was deliberately limited to natural timber, Rattan and metal finishes typical of the Asian coastal resort while balancing these off carefully against the rich turquoise floor.
The clients, their customers and the airport were delighted with the result, which puts a slightly natural spin on the typical proliferation of Vietnamese inspired food offerings popping up all over New Zealand.
Photography, Sampford Cathie.
Project
Client: Kiwi Discovery
Location: Auckland International Airport
Status: Complete