Hasta La Ideas

This house for toy-bear collectors in Thailand was conceived as a scaled-up version of the bears’ display cabinet (+ slideshow).

The Bear House is a renovation of an existing three-storey residence, which has been reconfigured to provide a holiday home at Cha-Am Beach resort for a family who are avid collectors of the Japanese Bearbrick figurines.

The clients requested an exhibition area where they could display 17 of the toy bears, so designers Onion devised a multi-level cabinet filled with miniature staircases and ladders.

“We thought of the bears’ cabinet as the bears’ house,” designer Arisara Chaktranon told Dezeen.

The designers then introduced similar features into the humans’house, such as a ladder that climbs up from a ground-floor lounge area to the uppermost ceiling of a triple-height space.

“The house itself is a replica of the bears’ cabinet,” said Chaktranon. “We enlarged the scale of the cabinet, then applied the same timber material to the cabinet and the house.

More ladders can be found inside the bedrooms. One leads up from the master bedroom to a suspended daybed, while another climbs up beside the bed in the children’s room.

Oak panels cover walls, floors and ceilings throughout the house, and there are windows and hatches between different rooms.

The designers invited Thai graffiti artists MMFK and P7 to decorate the walls of the living room and swimming-pool terrace. The duo painted a series of unique characters, including a one-eyed monster dressed as a sailor and a blue bear with stripy cheeks and eyebrows.

Other residences with integrated display areas include a house with a showroom for a car collector and a house with an integral art gallery.

See more architecture in Thailand, including a house with a bathroom that’s on show to a swimming pool.

Photography is by Wison Tungthunya.

Here’s a project description from the designers:

Bear House

Bear House is on Cha-Am Beach, a famous seaside resort town in central Thailand, three hours drive from Bangkok. The brief is to renovate a three-storey building of eight metres wide and twenty-eight metres long, utilising an area of three-hundred and eighty square metres, turning it into a second home of the Sahawat family. When the interior construction started, in December 2011, the boy of the family was two years old. A baby was expected. In April 2012, Bear House was happily finished.

Bear House belongs to the Thai Be@rbrick collectors. Sittawat Sahawat and Nipapat Sahawat are siblings who are fascinated by various sizes and styles of Be@rbrick toys, produced by the Japanese company Medicom Toy Incorporated. Be@rbrick is an anthropomorphised bear with a simplified form and pot belly. Each plastic figure features nine parts, namely head, torso, hips, arms, hands and legs. It has flexible joints and a swivelled head. Many artists have created decorative patterns for the standard mould such as the British fashion designer Vivian Westwood and Stash who is considered one of New York’s graffiti legends. In the Sahawat family’s collection, the major figures are BAPE camouflage print. They are twenty-eight centimetres high and referred to as 400% Be@rbricks as its actual size, or a 100% Be@rbrick, is seven centimetres high.

Size matters in Bear House. The design process does not start from the house itself but the Be@rbricks display cabinet. It is thought of as a house of seventeen 400% Be@rbricks. It is composed of steps, ladders and voids that fit the scale of twenty-eight centimetres tall figures. It occupies a whole wall of the dining room, linking the house’s entry to the living area which is three stories high. The cabinet is a central piece and a model of the house. It is made of light coloured oak wooden panels resembling the other main surfaces of the house. Bear House is a bigger version of Be@rbricks’ display cabinet.

Miniature fixtures and oversize furniture are the features of Bear House. Lamps and pillows are oversize so that the inhabitants may feel smaller than they actually are. The house has four sizes of doorknobs, customised for different size of doors. They are sometimes too big for a child’s hand and too small for an adult’s hand. The ladder that seems too high is one of the living area’s decorative elements. It leads the gaze high up to square skylights, oversize voids, and windows of different scale. Every room on the upper floors overlook the hall of living area.

An enlarged Be@rbrick’s ladder is placed in the master bedroom. It connects a space between the king size bed and a single day bed in an elevated hole. There are two views from this day bed. Next to the hole is the three stories hall overlooking the living area. The opposite side across the room is the sea view. In front of the master bedroom stands a 1000% Be@rbrick of seventy centimetres high, painted in a pattern of police uniform. It is a special collaboration between French label Paul&Joe and Medicom Toy. This 1000% Be@rbrick can be seen from the living area on the second floor, the bedroom on the second floor, and the landing that links the stair and the ramp towards the master bedroom.

Bear House is bright and humorous. Its living room and swimming pool are the front part of the house. The whole space is coloured by young Thai graffiti artists well known as MMFK and P7. In the living room, behind the oversize sofa, MMFK paints a one-eye monster, dressed up as a sailor, whereas P7 paints a blue bear head with striped eyebrows. Next to the swimming pool, on the wall of eleven metres long, MMFK illustrates the cartoon representation of a bear devouring his iconic one-eye monster. P7 drew a black bear head with the word ‘surf’ on its forehead. These illustrations are customised only for Bear House.

Project: Bear house by Onion
Location: Cha-Am beach, Thailand
Interior Architect: Arisara Chaktranon , Siriyot Chaiamnuay, onion team
Area: 380 sq.m.
Completion year: 2012

Above: ground floor plan – click for larger image and key

Above: first floor – click for larger image and key

Above: second floor plan – click for larger image and key

Above: long section – click for larger image

Above: cross section – click for larger image

The post Bear House
by Onion appeared first on Dezeen.

Residents taking a bath or using the toilet are on show to swimmers in the pool at this brick and concrete house in Chiang Mai, Thailand (+ slideshow).

The house was designed by local studio SO, also known as Situation-based Operation. Named Wonderwall, it comprises a series of both indoor and outdoor rooms that fold around a row of chunky brick walls.

The residence is organised over a series of split levels to negotiate the slopes of the hill. Staircases are dotted around the rooms to prescribe different routes between floors.

“The house is basically a living space,” explains architect Narong Othavorn. “[It has] a huge open plan and open space between indoor and outdoor, with the big wall cutting through the existing landform to create the sequential scenes, exposing it to different space and functions.”

The swimming pool is positioned on the uppermost storey, sandwiched between the main bedroom and bathroom. Walls are glazed on the facades of both rooms so that they face each other across the water.

“I just wanted the owner to be able to shower right after swimming,” Othavorn told Dezeen.

Louvred fencing surrounds this cluster of rooms to let in light, but also maintains privacy from the rest of the house.

“The bedroom can be seen once entering the plot, but can only be accessed at the end of the sequential scene by passing through a gallery-like living room and the swimming pool,” added Othavorn.

The “gallery-like” living and dining room is also located on the top floor, while a sheltered outdoor kitchen and living room sits on the level below.

A square terrace covers one of the rooftops and is designed to double-up as an outdoor cinema.

The architect’s materials palette included red clay bricks, exposed concrete and timber decking. Glass walls are made up of concertinaed panels that hinge open when necessary.

Other residences we’ve featured from Thailand include a Bangkok apartment with an outdoor shower room and a renovation of two traditional shophouses.

See more architecture from Thailand ».

Photography is by Piyawut Srisakul.

The post Wonderwall House
by SO appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects Spark have added a stairwell resembling a giant wedge of Swiss cheese onto two Bangkok shophouses they’ve converted into a youth centre.

Commissioned by Thai bank TMB, the Fai Fah centre provides the venue for a programme of workshops and classes that encourage children and teenagers to take part in creative activities.

Above: photograph is by TMB

During the design process the architects held design workshops with local children, who had the initial ideas for the steel lattice that covers the facades of the two original shophouses.

Above: photograph is by Spark

“Spark’s workshops with the Fai-Fah children were inspiring,” explained TMB Bank’s Paradai Theerathada. ”They gave the children a great sense of accomplishment from being involved in the design process for such a large-scale, tangible project.”

The children also chose a palette of colours to mark each of the building’s six storeys, including the bright yellow that features in the event space and mezzanine gallery at the base of the building.

Other rooms include a library, an art studio, a pottery classroom and a dance studio.

Above: photograph is by Spark

A garden is located on the roof, where the L-shaped stair tower wraps around to create a storage room.

Above: photograph is by TMB

Long, narrow shophouses are a typical building typology in Southeast Asia, and we also recently featured one converted into a residence with a swimming pool inside.

See all our stories about shophouses »

Photography is by Lin Ho, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from Fai-Fah:

FAI-FAH

Fai-Fah, which means “light energy”, is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme initiated in April 2010 by TMB Bank. The programme acts as a catalyst for change in Thai society through working with underprivileged children and teenagers in their community using the arts as a vehicle for self-development and creative thinking.

In October 2010, Spark was invited to design Fai-Fah Prachautis, the refurbishment of two shop houses located in a residential district of Bangkok.

The art and creative education programmes contained in the client’s brief have been distributed over five floors, and include: the multi-function “living room”, the art studio, a library, the gallery, the dance studio and a multi-purpose rooftop garden.

The design was developed at interactive workshops with the Fai-Fah children and teenagers, volunteer arts staff, and members of TMB’s CSR team.

Ideas generated during the workshop such as the façade screen and the interior colours were incorporated into the design, underlining the positive nature of the collaborative process and ownership of the concept amongst all of the project’s protagonists.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

The five levels of the building are linked by a central feature staircase with each level defined by its own colour theme.

First floor mezzanine plan – click above for larger image

Utilities and services are housed in a new inverted L- shaped structure, the “Utility Stick”, which is plugged into the rear of the building; it rises from the courtyard and bends to form a garden store at roof level.

Second floor plan – click above for larger image

The existing shop house façade has been transformed by the application of a bespoke lattice screen and Fai-Fah logo, a statement that the building is different from its adjacent neighbours and announcing to the community that Fai-Fah has arrived.

Third floor plan – click above for larger image

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Forth floor plan – click above for larger image

GFA (area above ground): 569 sqm
Project Completion: Quarter 1, 2012
Facilities: Event Space (Living Room), Gallery, Library, Art Studio, Dance Studio, Roof garden

Roof  plan – click above for larger image

Architect: Spark
Design Director: Stephen Pimbley
Team: Wenhui Lim, Mark Mancenido, Suchon Pongsopitsin
Client: TMB Bank Public Company Limited
Client Team: Paradai Theerathada, Sakchai Sriwatthanapitikul, Nopawan Saengteerakij, Thatchakorn Prutnoppadol, Mallika Uswachoke, Radomdej Taksana, Aree Vesvijak, Jumpol Kwangosen, Saranyoo Nantanawanit, Siriporn Lerdapirangsi
Fai-Fah Kids: Master Thanakan Namunmong, Chisanu Kiatsuranayon, Sirinart Naksombhob, Kamolthat Sutat Na Ayudhya
Local Architect: 365COOP Company Limited

Section – click above for larger image

The post Fai Fah by Spark appeared first on Dezeen.

Thai architects Architectkidd built an outdoor shower room behind wooden screens on the balcony of this renovated apartment in Bangkok (+ slideshow).

The perforated screens around the shower were made by a local carpenter who used material scavenged from demolished buildings.

Exposed concrete lines the rear walls of the shower room, as well as walls, floors and ceilings elsewhere in the apartment.

Rooms are laid out to maximise ventilation from windows on the east and south sides, which offer views out over the Bangkok skyline.

The chunky wood of the kitchen counter is echoed by a solid wood bench beneath one of the windows.

Another project by Architectkidd on Dezeen features a white aluminium facade with circular perforations.

Photographs are by Luke Yeung and Sirisak Pituck.

Here’s some further information from the architects:

Bangkok Flat | Architectkidd

An outdoor shower is combined with a balcony and living room in this renovation of an old high-rise building in Bangkok. The design makes use of as many existing attributes and found conditions as possible. The building’s location, while in the middle of the city, is away from main roads and adjacent to one of Bangkok’s largest waterways, or ‘klongs’. The apartment itself is located at one corner of the high-rise.

In Bangkok, prevailing winds originate from the south-west direction, and as a result, the layout was arranged to maximise openings to the east and south sides to allow for cross ventilation. As a result, upon entering the apartment, one faces an uninterrupted view of the Bangkok skyline.

Materials and finishes were selected as spare and contemporary interpretations of Thai living. In particular, inspiration was found during visits to local workshops of craftmen and carpenters. These workshops usually consist of not only their ‘working’ areas, but also combined eating and sleeping areas within a limited space.

The idea of combining several functions within a compact space resulted in the design of the outdoor shower area. Working closely with a local carpenter who used wood scavenged from demolished buildings and structures, perforated wooden screens were designed using reclaimed hard wood timber. When not used as a shower, these wooden screens can be closed to enlarge the outdoor balcony space.

The post Bangkok Flat by
Architectkidd appeared first on Dezeen.

Residence Villa Noi est une résidence unique qui a été séparée dans des logements plus petits pour s’accomoder à la forêt. Située à Phang Nga en Thaïlande, cette sublime structure pensée par Duangrit Bunnag est à découvrir en images dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Soneva Kiri Tree Hotel
• Floating Cinema
• Malbaie V Residence

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