Facing the Perfume River on Hue's Le Loi boulevard, a white Art Deco villa that served as the residence of the French colonial governor of Annam carries its history with unusual grace. Built in 1932, the structure's symmetrical facade — curved balconies, porthole-like decorative roundels, layered cornice lines illuminated at dusk against a deep blue sky — establishes Azerai La Residence Hue as one of the finest surviving examples of French Indochina architecture in Vietnam. Adrian Zecha's Azerai group undertook a meticulous restoration, expanding the property to 122 rooms and villas across the landscaped riverside grounds while preserving the original building's proportions and colonial detailing. Inside, the design maintains a careful conversation between historical fabric and contemporary comfort. Heritage rooms in the original villa retain their high ceilings, original teal encaustic floor tiles, gridded French windows, and slowly turning ceiling fans — details that ground the space firmly in its period — while Art Deco-inspired bronzed metal beds and circular disc wall sconces add considered modern furniture without disturbing the atmosphere. The bar, lined with herringbone parquet, terracotta velvet armchairs, and a backlit cabinet displaying blue-and-white Vietnamese ceramics, achieves the feel of a well-preserved colonial salon rather than a stage set. Newer wing rooms trade period charm for dark timber floors and wide balconies with river views, the two registers sitting comfortably within grounds where royal palms frame a broad outdoor pool at the river's edge.

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Set on a two and a half-hectare site with 200 metres of frontage on the fabled Perfume River, Azerai La Residence, Hue has 122 rooms & suites. The colonial mansion at the heart of the resort was built in 1930s as part of the residence of the French Resident Superieure. The mansion’s distinctive façade, its long horizonal lines and nautical flourishes are hallmark of the streamline moderne school of art deco architecture. Its two complementary wings, built in 2005, are contemporary in design yet echo elements of art deco aesthetics and embrace an expansive tropical garden and salt-water swimming pool.