Wind and Water Café

Located in a rampant tropical landscape, Wind and Water Cafe is among VTN Architects^ earliest experimental designs that use bamboo as a contemporary architectural expression. A man-made pond integrated in the existing natural site was essential in realizing the idea for the cafe space. Built a composition of bamboos and steel tensile membranes, the roof could shelter a twelve-meter-wide curved column-free space. The characteristic V-shape of the cafe, aimed at maximizing the wind circulation, allows the space to be air-conditioning-free. 

After being soaked in mud and smoked out which are also known as traditional methods of processing bamboos, they demonstrate some outstanding characteristics for a building material: they become aesthetic, durable, ecological and inexpensive.

Referred as the "green steel" of 21st century, bamboo is excellent at absorbing CO2 and has a higher rebirth ability in comparison to other wood materials. Not only does the material perform structurally, but it also plays a versatile role in expressing architecturally.
Additionally, bamboo is extremely flexible which differentiates itself other wood materials. However, due to its dimensional limitation, bamboo structures require plentiful compositions of shorter branches. As a consequence, numerous joints are unavoidable, making its details an essence in designing with bamboo. It is common to use metal joints; however, the organic characteristic and cost advantage of bamboo structures would gradually diminish as the usage of metal increases. Therefore, the low-tech solutions was implied by tying ropes to bamboo branches to make joints.  Wind and Water Cafe consists of thousands of bamboo trees, yet with minimum installation installation of steel components.