“Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begin” said once Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. This is for sure the speciality of WARchitect for this Sleepless Residence.

Season One, Episode Two: Thailand

It all started when the owner of the house fell in love with the location. With a panoramic view of the lake, Mr. Narongvit decided to have his ideal house built there… blissfully nested and surrounded by nature, between the lake and the sky.

Founder and Director of Sleepless society and Chandelier music, he asked WARchitect to create a home enabling him to believe he is staying in a luxury resort without travelling.

The inner courtyard at the centre of the house, connected all spaces, grants the owner to connect with green views all day long. The enclosing space of this residence allows him to be more relaxed, 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 WARchitect, let them know immediately that the crucial thing of designing this house is not an outstanding form but space and atmosphere.

The priority thing the architect studio focused on is how they can optimise the panoramic view of the lake, which recalled to the space of an amphitheatre, 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 situation happens in the bathroom: looking at the lake-side, one can look through the inner courtyard and living room to spot the lake-view. On the other side, if one is in the living room beside the lake, looking back to the bedroom-side, the steps of the green terraces, which covered up a parking space that won’t be visible.

Meanwhile, if the owner is at the working space on the second floor, take a look at the downstairs amphitheatre garden, he will be able to see more green space than a plain flat garden.

Besides, the home owner and his guests 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.

Mr. Narongvit is an easy-going person, while, still maintain neat and meticulous at the same time. Therefore, WARchitect 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, they 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, the architects designed façade to cover all of this part, which they 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 them. If they 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.