A glimpse at colonial architecture inside Café Sori, Tu Xuong

Once the home of designer Thai Cong, it is easy to see why he chose the villa as his residence, everywhere in the building oozes out an architectural history in the 20s of the last century. The gate, window, swimming pool, balcony, sunshade are completely retained from the early days when Saigon city began to integrate into the world. The overall architecture is an adaptation of the European masion style for the Indochinese climate. Colonial architecture was commonly known as a building method by the French for the French-occupied regions in Indochina, America, and South America.

The easy way to identify colonial houses are their very large windows, double main doors, overhanging tiled roofs and symmetrical design. The French love to incorporate Roman-style columns into the villa, the feeling when looking at French villas is a sense of grandeur, with the spirit of the Napoleonic era lacking in Italian and Spanish houses. Because France is a cultural and also climate buffer zone between the warm Southern and cold Northern Europe, French architecture can easily adapt from a cold to a hot and humid climate like Vietnam.

The owner of Sori Café incorporated a variety of furniture into the space. The upper floor and the conservatory section furniture are mostly smaller tables for couples. Apparently, they retain many large, well-ventilated windows originally built from the last century. When you come downstairs, there are 2 large rooms excluding the kitchen, slightly dimly lit, including armchairs and low coffee tables. The space right next to the swimming pool has many private tables and chairs in Mediterranean style. I find the furniture on the 1st and 2nd floors seems a bit cheesy, not appealing, especially the armchairs look worse outside than in the picture, the colour is something pinkish from synthetic textile Terrible, also regrettable possible from rush construction. The only space that I appreciate aesthetically is the swimming pool area, which has the same style as the Portuguese and Southern Italian villas I've been to.

The drinks are okay, I've got the idea wine would be more appropriate for the space. Anyway, this café is not a place to work with your laptop since it's quite crowded with people on their Instagram. The coffee shop seems to be a new way the young generation brings colour and vitality to old buildings, I don't find the way they rush the items of furniture selection any desirable, but anyway they did a good job on bringing this old mansion into life.