SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳: EVERYDAY LIFE IS ICONIC

The iconic combination of the conical hat, plastic chair and table, and iced coffee in a plastic cup. Bonus: Graffiti scrawled on the weather- beaten wall.

Often referred to as the Catinat Building or the 26 Ly Tu Trong Old Apartment, it perfectly captures Saigon’s layers of time—stretching from French colonial elegance to wartime intelligence.
The French Colonial Era (Late 1920s)
🇻🇳 Built around 1926–1927 by the French, it was originally named the Catinat Building (as Đồng Khởi street was then called Rue Catinat). It was designed as a luxury Art Deco/Early Modernist mixed-use complex.
🇻🇳 The ground floor housed high-end commercial businesses, including the famous Société Indochinoise de Transports (SIT).
🇻🇳 The upper floors were designed as upscale residential apartments for wealthy French officials, expatriates, and the elite class of Indochina.