Project: Sleepless Residence
Architects: WARchitect
Location: Saphan Sung District, Bangkok, Thailand
Area: 6,135 sf
Photographs by: Rungkit Charoenwat
Sleepless Residence by WARchitect
The Sleepless Residence is an outstanding contemporary dwelling located in the Saphan Sung District of Bangkok, Thailand. It was designed by studio WARchitect whose name you might recognize from their Skyscape Rooftop House project that has already been showcased on our site.
The design of the Sleepless Residence is spectacular in the way it blends in a modern living space with lush landscapes in and outside. Words can’t do it justice so jump right into the photos below.
The owner of this project, Mr. Narongvit (Founder & Director of Sleepless society & Chandelier music), fell in love at first sight after seeing this location. Panoramic view of the lake, spotting from this site, plays an important role in reminding him of his ideal house, where it has been blissfully surrounded by nature, between the lake and the sky, like staying in a wonderful private resort, which makes dwellers don’t want to go anywhere.
The inner courtyard at the center of the house, connected all spaces, grants the owner to connect with green views all day long. The enclosing space of this house allows him to be more relax and relieve, which met his need to not only concentrating on composing music but also creating an area to party with friends. The owner’s dream was conveyed to us, let us know immediately that the crucial thing of designing this house is not an outstanding form but space and atmosphere.
The priority thing we focused on is how we can optimize the panoramic view of the lake, which recalled us to the space of an amphitheater, which will increase your range of visual contact. Imagine when we are at the upper level looking down through the lower level, the front-seated audience wouldn’t obstruct our eye-sight, on the other hand, if we are at the lower level, looking up to the upper level, we will simultaneously face all of the upper-seated audience.
A similar case to this house, If we are at the bedroom, looking at the lake-side, we can look through the inner courtyard and living room to spot the lake-view. On the other side, if we are in the living room beside the lake, looking back to the bedroom-side, we will see the steps of the green terraces, which covered up a parking space that we wouldn’t want to see. Meanwhile, if we are at the working space on the second floor, take a look at the downstairs amphitheater garden, you will be able to see more green space than a plain flat garden.
Besides, dwellers will be more connected to nature, however, the enclosing space of the house won’t allow the outsiders to spot anything inside the house as well. The selected materials for this house were inspired by the owner’s interior decoration of the previous house and the Chandelier Music office. They were decorated in loft style, with an eclectic mix of European vintage furniture.
The owner himself is generally an easy-going person, while, still maintain neat and meticulous at the same time. Therefore, we opted for some loft-style materials to arrange and make them more lavishing such as brick look tile. Normally, it will be placed in horizontal masonry pattern, resembling the three-dimensional look of brick, we adapted the idea, while at the same time, rotate a bit, and lay them vertically piece by piece, with the 2 cm-thick bricks, which the rear-side typically have a groove for mounting to the wall, but, we turned that fluted side out to make a unique difference.
Since the master bedroom was placed in the front, parallel with the road-side, which may interrupt owner’s privacy and more possible to absorb more heat from morning sunlight, so, we designed façade to cover all of this part, which we noticed that 1:2 ratio brick in the size of 7.5-cm wide and 15-cm long is ubiquitous and a basic proportion, while, 1:6 ratio brick (5-cm wide, 30-cm long) is not popular, but it attracted us! If we adopt this kind of bricks and lay them at a 45-degree angle, they will create gaps between themselves in the way that those 1:2 ratio brick unable to do.
Besides those effective heat preventing functions, they generate good ventilation which advantage to an interior wall surface temperature as well. Above all, this practical façade allows the house more outstanding and increases curiosity to those outsiders of what behinds this attractive façade too.
