Realised by Shanghai-based Red Design, the new Phnom Penh outpost of Pizza 4P's reflects the brand’s sustainable approach to food and design, with a zero-waste concept influenced by New Khmer Architecture

Reading the name of Phnom Penh's new design-centric riverside pizza parlour, one might imagine the four ‘P’s standing for an inventive topping or a signature sauce. However, as restaurant director Kazuya Kubota explains, the meaning goes much deeper. The pizzeria has an altruistic aim to help foster respect for others and an appreciation for the earth and society. In fact, the name 4P’s represents the founders’ wish ‘For Peace’.

Pizza 4P's was founded in Ho Chi Minh City in 2011, a time when there were few pizzerias in the city. From one store with 30 seats, the company has expanded to 24 outlets across Vietnam, and now Cambodia. Apart from world peace, the company ethos emphasises sustainability and farm-to-table practices, including aquaponics, reducing plastic use and providing reusable containers. For their newest store in Phnom Penh, Kubota explains they decided to go for a zero-waste concept. To achieve this, they called on Shanghai-based Mike McGirr and his team at Red Design.

McGirr and his co-founders saw a gap in the Chinese market for well-designed F&B and hospitality projects, and since Red Design’s founding in 2007 their portfolio has grown to include major hotel and dining brands. However, the Pizza 4P's partnership came about from a chance meeting. In 2019, McGirr decided to make a trip out to Vietnam, as they were interested in the emerging market and felt it had similarities to Shanghai in the early 2000s. ‘I spent a few days there and fell in love with Pizza 4P’s: the food was amazing and the fundamentals of the brand were exciting,’ McGirr recalls. ‘I was lucky enough to get a meeting with Kazu and just loved his passion for design and appreciation for using existing materials without over embellishment. As he said at our first meeting, “If a wall on the site is beautiful, why cover it?”’

Red Design’s first project with Pizza 4P’s, in Hanoi, happened shortly after this meeting. ‘The success of that first project, and the ease with which we were able to implement the design from Shanghai, led to Pizza 4P’s coming back to us for their first location outside of Vietnam. Ironically, the COVID-19 situation made our studio even more attractive, since they felt we could implement their zero-waste dream remotely.’

The design of the Phnom Penh branch was inspired by New Khmer Architecture, the mid-century architectural movement that blended elements of modernism with the Cambodian vernacular, and in particular by Vann Molyvann’s Institute of Foreign Languages in Phnom Penh, which combines bold concrete structures with traditional Khmer methods in breathable architecture. This combination of modernism and sustainability sits well with the 4P’s goal of a sustainable, green approach to design.

For Pizza 4P’s, ‘zero waste’ means a set of principles to eliminate waste through reducing, reusing and recycling, thus avoiding sending waste to landfill or polluting the environment. ‘Our intention is that the interior visually highlights these principles,’ says McGirr. ‘Some are easy for consumers to notice straight away, while others require more exploration to find out about the story behind the elements.’ The recycling principles are evident from the customer’s first interaction with the space: the brass entrance signage is crafted from melted down old Cambodian bombs and empty cartridge cases produced by local craftspeople. As well as providing a pure representation of the zero-waste approach, this is a poetic demonstration of Pizza 4P's ongoing vision to ‘Make the World Smile for Peace’.

Text / Simon Ostheimer
Images / Luke Ding