It literally means "floral tiles" in Vietnamese, which are the French encaustic tiles that transformed from upper-crust colonial material to familiar lowbrow cultural material in Vietnamese housing, were an amalgamation of cultures. In effect, Gạch Bông remains a familiar element in the cultural memory of many Vietnamese people.

These tiles’ patterns feature a diverse range of ornaments and decorative motifs from the Greek, Chinese, Medieval, and Renaissance periods.

While they are readily visible in Vietnamese architecture and cultural consciousness, we noticed that they are rarely documented in most of architectural records.