This is a renovation project. It began with an idea of having a house in Thailand where, in a year, the owner can live here for 6 months and travel the world for the other 6 months. Because he is so in love with Chiangmai city; especially this location, which has a great river view from the master bedroom. So he ended up buying spaces in this old condominium building and put them together into one house. The existing space was a combination of 2 apartments with 4 bedrooms. However, the entire space was full of teak wood finishings on every surface, together with old fashioned wallpapers. What was more was the existing structure could only provide low ceilings, around 2.20-meter high. So, the feeling was quite heavy and gloomy. 

The owner plans to have only 3 bedrooms with a big walk-in closet. Also, there are needs for a bigger kitchen together with a proper dining room. The vision about the atmosphere is to make it brighter - more natural light into the interior - yet to have some local touch from teak wood materials.

The design then attempts to realize such needs and vision by employing 2 methods. One is to entirely adjust the existing confusing plan into a very clear and open-plan; that is, the plan speaks about symmetrical order and axial order. And The other method is the use of white space along with the teak wood floor. Of course, there is some fun going on by using natural colors here and there in each room. In respect of the atmosphere, we pay so much attention to the tactile quality from every surface along with serene details, because we believe that such qualities can make something ordinary into something special. Lastly, for the lighting, the design tends to suggest the mood of an art and craft gallery due to the owner’s preferences in collecting things and having them around him as inspirational objects.