Enjoying tranquility in the busy heart of Bangkok

Text by Laura Box

A lofty mass of contrasting curved and angular features constructed from pour-in-place concrete makes up the white facade of 55 Sathorn.

Owner and architect of 55 Sathorn house, Kuanchanok Pakavaleetorn, designed the central Bangkok home for her husband and young daughter, with the potential of her parents joining in the future.

Located in Sathorn, a central business and cultural district of Bangkok with distinctively narrow streets and low-rise townhouses, 55 Sathorn is a unique contemporary response to its surroundings.

Large openings are positioned to maximise wind flow, while windows are carefully placed to face internally, ensuring noise reduction, safety and privacy due to the home’s noisy central-Bangkok location. The placement of the windows and openings are “used to choreograph the amount of sunlight, filtered light, and reflected light throughout the house at different hours,” says Pakavaleetorn.

The “tiny” corner site is in a high density area and the building takes a “defensive, fortress-like posture,” says Pakavaleetorn, which sees the home only 50 centimetres away from the edge of the site and the neighbouring houses. To make up for the site’s small size, the three-bedroom home is five levels high, and at the top, “ribbons of concrete float weightlessly to reveal and mark the rooftop courtyard”.

“We use the movement of the sunlight as a metaphor carving away the solid concrete mass, creating separations and openings,” says Pakavaleetorn. “The noticeable curved ribbon form slowly unravels as the user travels from the first floor to the roof garden.”

The exterior of the home is covered in a textured coating, which continues inside. Designed with a “playful arrangement of space”, 55 Sathorn is internally connected by a translucent vertical steel staircase. Natural wood, concrete masonry, steel, glass and natural tones make up a tranquil and organic interior palette.

The three-bedroom home is a paragon of luxury. On the ground floor is a fitness room, office and parking spaces. One bedroom features an expansive bespoke walk-in wardrobe with custom modular lighting, and another is connected to a substantial rooftop deck, with a view over the surrounding neighbourhood.

Quirky and compact stairs are placed around the house. In the living room, a black steel staircase spirals up a thick cylindrical pole to a mezzanine library. A white ladder style staircase leads into the tiled white basement.