© Hiroyuki Oki

 

Ron Bernthal 

Pick Tea is a small milk tea shop in the city of Bảo Lộc, Vietnam, designed by The Bloom architectural firm.  Vietnam  is famous as a producer and exporter of well known tea (and coffee) brands, and milk tea business model is also popular here with a variety of large and small milk tea businesses. Pick Tea, which opened in 2023, is approximately 2,100 square-feet. .

Bao Loc is off Vietnam’s beaten tourist path.  Bảo Lộc is a city of Lâm Đồng Province in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam, and Bảo Lộc is famous for its registered trademark: B’lao tea. The city is surrounded by lush nature, coffee and tea plantations, a lake, and interesting shops and dining experiences can found here. There is no train station nearby, but it can be accessed by a local bus or hired car from Ho Chi Minh City (about 4 hours) or Dalat (two hours).  Small, inexpensive restaurants, cafes, coffee and milk tea shops are scattered about the town.

Like many somewhat isolated and quiet towns in Vietnam, far from major cities, Bảo Lộc seems less populated than it is.  However, look in any direction and you will see people tending to plantations, tending to their ducks and small animals, riding their motorbikes and bicycles, selling food items in baskets lined up along the sidewalks or in small markets.  As of 2018 the town district had a population of 170,920, with most living in and around Bảo Lộc

 

Photo: Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên (Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

The shop was built on an empty lot, with the purpose of being compact and easy to dismantle if needed to be converted for another purpose. The iron frame structure is specially constructed with joints linked by rotating shackles, which easily increases and decreases  the height and aperture, but still ensures a sustainable construction.

 

The door system is woven with a layer of cables, combined with pine wood, creating a safe environment, and when combined with the wheel below, the entire door system can swing open and change angles easily.

© Hiroyuki Oki

 

The iron frame system is interwoven, but still maintains a stable structure to raise the removable roof system above that ensures protection from rain and sun, or can open fully to the sky in good weather.