Vanich House

Many on this list sit in Talat Noi – an area stitched together from old family businesses and deteriorating workshops. Vanich House is another venture to keep these buildings alive. The wooden building is more than a hundred years old and belonged to the owner's family who ran a machine shop here making steam engines used in rice mills of old. Now it's a café, a multi-purpose space and a loft you can stay in. The ground floor splits three ways, with parking where the machine shop stood, the café and the living area sitting side by side with no wall between them. A pile of old objects marks the production line instead, and metal chains do the same at the back, letting light cast eerie shadows of its old workshop past onto floors and steel beams. Much of the furniture, the daybeds, tables and chairs, came with the house. The exposed-concrete counter is the architect family's own addition.

Time Out tip: Come right at opening, 10.30am on a weekday. The open-air space stays cooler and quieter early on.

Soi Vanich 2, Talat Noi. Open Tuesday-Sunday. 10.30am-5.30pm (closed Wednesday). Call 097 298 2655.