- Project: Skyscape Rooftop House
- Architect: WARchitect
- Location: Thailand, Khet Chatuchak, Bangkok
- Year: 2019
- Area: 150 m2
- Photography: Rungkit Charoenwat
A Floating Sanctuary Above the City
Perched atop a five-story apartment block in Bangkok’s Lat Phrao district, the Skyscape Rooftop House by WARchitect challenges conventions of domestic architecture.
Measuring just 150 m², this minimalist single-level residence is not built on land but suspended in the sky, merging architecture, horizon, and light into one continuous spatial experience.
Context and Concept
The project began when the apartment’s owner—seeking privacy and calm—decided to transform the unused rooftop, once occupied only by water tanks, into a personal retreat.
Its elevated setting, 15 meters above ground, provided both constraint and opportunity: no garden, no street frontage, and no visibility from public roads.
Rather than competing with the existing structure, WARchitect conceived a design that appears to dissolve into the skyline.
The result is not a “building” in the conventional sense, but a borderless wooden box adrift between earth and air.
Architecture of Lightness
The architects aimed to eliminate visual mass, creating the illusion of weightlessness.
Walls and ceilings were treated as thin, continuous planes, where hidden slopes, recessed lighting, and drop ceilings merge seamlessly into a single horizontal line.
This subtle manipulation gives the impression of a ceiling that floats—an unbroken surface where architecture meets atmosphere.
Every boundary is intentionally blurred.
Curtain tracks, air-conditioning ducts, and fixtures are embedded within slender recesses, reinforcing the minimalist purity of the form.
Functional Simplicity
Designed for a single occupant who rarely entertains, the house follows a six-grid layout aligned with the existing apartment’s column grid.
Spatial organization is straightforward yet fluid:
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Front three grids: dining area, living room, and bedroom—each opening toward panoramic skyline views through floor-to-ceiling glazing.
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Rear three grids: kitchen, bathroom, and a central open courtyard, visually linking all interior spaces.
The courtyard acts as the heart of the home, a private void of light and air visible from every room, ensuring cross-ventilation and a sense of openness despite the compact footprint.
Material Honesty
When construction began, the owner already owned a supply of Balau hardwood planks.
Instead of discarding pieces with imperfections—cracks, knots, saw marks—WARchitect embraced them, celebrating the natural irregularities of real timber.
This tactile warmth contrasts beautifully with the cool blue tones of the Bangkok sky, producing a serene, balanced atmosphere.
The final composition is a dialogue between wood and sky, between the tangible and the infinite.
Minimal, meditative, and deeply personal, the Skyscape Rooftop House transforms an ordinary rooftop into a living horizon.
The Skyscape Rooftop House exemplifies WARchitect’s mastery of minimalist form and spatial perception.
By reinterpreting the limitations of a rooftop site, the architects created a dwelling that feels both grounded and ethereal—a quiet sanctuary suspended between the city below and the sky above.
