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Long before his wood carving project took off, Thuan was already well-known in Hoi An’s tourism community as he owns and helped design a successful chain of homestays and restaurants along An Bang Beach.

In early 2020, Thuan opened Coco Casa, a new concept restaurant in Hoi An featuring all hand-carved, handcrafted interiors. With this property, Thuan strived to showcase more up-cycled and sustainable materials to create elaborate, intricately detailed furnishings and architecture. The result is a stunning art space overlooking the majestic Thu Bon river with sensational sunset views.

Then the pandemic arrived, casting it’s shadow over Hoi An’s tourism for more than 3 years. Most businesses were broken. To keep his businesses afloat during this unprecedented time, Thuan came up with many initiatives, including art, music and food festivals on An Bang Beach and cuisine competitions that feature the best chefs in town.

In December 2020, Thuan started a regular night art fair at Coco Casa, displaying notable arts and crafts of local Hoi An artists.  Thuan’s driftwood art objects stood out to guests who often commented on the uniqueness and creativity. His personal style of retaining the original color and grains of the wood, while using minimal carving was certainly a crowd pleaser.

After an initial phase of experimentation, Thuan decided to his driftwood art as a business venture. He started by carving all products by hand and later scaled up to our current workshop and art studio where local carpenters, artists and sculptors now both chisel by hand and have the aid of a woodworking machine to help meet the demand.