Flame & Flavor - A Red Cloak

Written By Omar Dahabra

Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Year: 2025
Architects: Paperfarm Inc
Photography by: Bing-Yu Yu

After a typhoon damaged its facade, Old New Taiwanese Cuisine—a flagship Michelin restaurant in Kaohsiung—underwent a bold transformation. Drawing from the restaurant’s name, Paperfarm reimagined the building as a dialogue between tradition and innovation.

The original façade—a faux-historic wooden screen—was damaged beyond repair. Rather than preserve imitation, the redesign embraced material clarity, replacing pastiche with a renewed identity.

In its place, a new outer layer cloaks the building in a deep, unmistakable red—drawn from the restaurant’s brand. Beyond a corporate reference, it redefines the restaurant’s street presence and amplifies its culinary legacy, casting heritage in a new light.

Tectonically, 1,080 perforated metal panels ripple across the facade like flames—an homage to the kitchen’s craft. Custom-engineered as part of a prefabricated clip-on system, the panels allow efficient installation and resilience against both typhoons and earthquakes.

Varying in perforation size, transparency, length, and tilt angle, each panel plays with shifting light and shadow in its own way, animating the surface with texture and rhythm.

The use of metal recalls more than cookware—it evokes Kaohsiung’s industrial past, where craftsmanship and heavy industry once shaped the city’s character. Here, architecture is an extension of Taiwanese craft, cuisine, and culture. Text description by the architects.

Source: www.paperfarminc.com
Client: Old New Taiwanese Cuisine

Omar Dahabra
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