A sculptural Sala Somnak-inspired pavilion on the riverfront, where café culture and public life gather under one roof.
The brief
BROWN Koh Norea Riverfront sits along the two-tiered promenade at the point where the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers converge. The site is defined by movement and shifting horizons: people strolling, pausing, and looking outward, light and weather changing across the water, and the city unfolding along the edge. The design begins with these conditions and transforms the narrow ground between river and city into an urban gesture that is both architecture and sculpture.
Inspired by the Sala Somnak, the archetypal Khmer pavilion, the project reinterprets its lightness, openness, and social spirit in a contemporary form. The pavilion stretches, branches, and opens to create a warm canopy for rest and gathering. It becomes a small public intervention where café culture, collective encounter, and quiet observation meet, in dialogue with time, weather, and the river.
Scope of Work
Architectural concept, pavilion design, interior design, custom millwork, lighting strategy, landscape integration, material and craft coordination.
Craft and materiality shape the pavilion’s character. A wooden ceiling, formed with boat-building precision, gives the roof its hovering presence. Below it, a hand-hammered brass counter recalls the shimmer of the Mekong and carries the tactility of human touch. An extensive terrazzo bench, embedded with river sand, pebbles, and shells collected from the site, flows from interior to exterior, extending the experience outward. Together, roof, counter, and bench form a layered section that evokes boat, river, and riverbed, anchoring the project to place through materials drawn from its own landscape.
