A wooden home to embrace nature and family

Sarah Tolle—Homify Canada Sarah Tolle—Homify Canada
Baan Kong ( Grandfather’s house), บริษัท สถาปนิกชุมชนและสิ่งแวดล้อม อาศรมศิลป์ จำกัด บริษัท สถาปนิกชุมชนและสิ่งแวดล้อม อาศรมศิลป์ จำกัด Country style house Wood Wood effect
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This beautiful wooden home in Thailand benefits from a highly unique and naturally rich environment, located in the “Bangkru community”—a low cost land development project for personnel from the Rung Aroon School and Arsom Slip Institutde of the Arts. The area surrounding this home is largely composed of water, with both a canal and lagoon closely hugging the boundaries of the building site, and vegetation is abundant both inside and outside the walls of the home.

The architects who created this project were faced with a change of circumstances during the creation of the home, challenging them to reconsider the functional and aesthetic elements of the project: initially, the house was designed as a place of recovery for the family’s “Ah-Ma”, or grandmother. Unfortunately, the grandmother passed away during the construction of the home, and shortly after, some of the extended family was affected by an intense flood. Therefore, the architects, together with the family, sat down to reconsider the main functions of the home, revising the project to suit a drastically different family situation. The “Kong”, or grandfather, was now the sole guardian of the family, and the house was redesigned to support his physical and mental health in order for him to continue as the leader of the family unit. The proximity of the canal and lagoon was given careful consideration; after suffering loss from a flood, the importance of a solid design strategy for living in harmony with the surrounding water became an important aspect of the new building.

Family and Nature

The result is a design with a strong emphasis on the integration of family and nature, the layout, location, and features of the home built with the purpose of connecting family, spending time together, and living in harmony with each other and with the natural world.  

Cool Environment

The house was made of wood to achieve the most efficient use of natural resources. The ground floor remains open, with a large wooden terrace, courtyard, small outdoor pavilion, and garden encouraging effortless interaction with the outdoors. As the family relies on the grandfather’s mental and physical health, the design aims to create a physical environment that maintains strong family engagement, with plenty of open gathering spaces.

Passive Design

The home enjoys a moderate temperature due to the elevated construction of the home that allows the cool air moving from the canal and lagoon to provide a natural cooling system as it circulates freely around the structure, another component that supports the family’s health and comfort by making use of natural features. In addition to this, the architects implemented passive design strategies, orienting the building for optimum natural ventilation, reducing heat transfer, and installing a long roof overhang to shade the sunnier parts of the home.

Warm Interior

The interior spaces of the home are spacious and simple, filled with rich wooden hues and smooth surfaces that create a relaxing and nurturing environment that honours its natural and cultural context.

Common Areas

Heavily influenced by the family’s culture and beliefs, this home has been built as a space to cultivate warm relationships, facilitate family traditions, and provide a healthy lifestyle for residents of all ages. This common is a perfect example of the warm and friendly attitude that permeates the home's design.

Bedroom

The bedroom is a simple vision of white and wood, with a few artifacts acting as cultural reminders of the family's culture and beliefs. 

Lush environment

A view from the terrace illustrates the lush and abundant atmosphere that characterizes this area as nature closely embraces the walls, window frames, and railings of the home. 

Tour another home that is built to live in harmony and close connection with nature in this ideabook!

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