Varee Valley Jungle Junction Restaurant and Café / NPDA Studio

Isan people (Thai Northeast people) of Thailand have been living in harmony with forests, mountains, and rivers for a long period of time. Their lives and nature are intertwined and inseparable. Nature has the source of lives, cultures, and beliefs for these people, even though, during the cold war, the Northeast people were used as political manipulative tools by politicians and defamed as uncivilized and barbaric. Varee (River) Valley Restaurant was built on the base of the original restaurant cabin, in the middle of the exuberant forest, on the river side of the Northeast. The main idea of the design was to build a connection between humans and nature to create activities, foods, traditions, and beliefs of the Northeast people from past to present.