Bringing a Venue to Life Through Story
Excerpt from: Building Akin to Art: The Story of One Man's Architect-Less Creation
Behind every striking building, there’s usually an architect. When it comes to Woods restaurant, things are a bit different.
Enter Didi H, a seasoned business professional with 25 years of experience and a leader of community and philanthropic initiatives. As co-owner of Woods, Didi defied expectations by creating an architectural marvel without a preplanned concept or architect.
Walk inside and you'll find reclaimed wooden beams illuminated by warm bulbs atop antique chandeliers, towering leafy trees growing through barely-there walls, vivid green sofas curving around wide trunks, and a wooden tea library with hundreds of fragrant teas. Upstairs, spend an afternoon on the terrace drinking coffee beneath green leaves, looking through wooden windows from a German fairytale. Or visit after the sunset, when jazz plays from the grand piano and water cascades from an Italian-style fountain.
Woods evolved using a 'build as you go' approach. Didi gathered reclaimed materials - 80-year-old electrical poles from south Sumatra, antique lamps, tiles and wooden beams. Each piece carried texture shaped by time and elements, which as Didi notes, 'is in essence, art.'