This abandoned 300-year-old home was turned into a cafe wrapped in a bamboo frame

Seoul-based studio Wise Architecture honored their name with the transformation of an abandoned 300-year-old house into a beautiful cafe.

Located in a small town in South Korea, the Cafe of Wind was named after the breeze that flows freely through its new shell made from fast-growing bamboo. Its charm resides in its unique unfinished aesthetics, a result of the modest but modern redesign.

The cafe’s house was part of a dozen of abandoned homes left behind after families fled the small town of Kasang-ri Kyung-book to go to the city. The cafe’s shape developed after the architects removed and added new walls including the bamboo frame and a platform that works as a terrace. Its A-frame bamboo screen not only wraps the 300-year-old home in a contemporary way but also allows the wind to blow through it porous skin.

Boasting a magnificent contrast between old and new, the timber-framed house’s interiors might look unfinished at first glance, but it’s fully complete. With a big glazed opening into the sitting patio area, its rough and ready interiors display a row of pristine white cups and a stainless steel counter. With the Cafe of Wind, the clever architects have turned ‘old into gold’.