TROP01: Threesformation

For TROP01: Threesformation, the architect had to cater for three different owners with different tastes living in three separate houses on one site. The challenge was designing each house to meet its owner’s individual style, while ensuring that all three houses retained a sense of unity under a tropical theme.

Chaisri Sophonsiri, the 60-year-old mother, will occupy B-house, located between her daughter’s and her son’s houses. Wanting only a small abode, she wanted the design of her house to be primarily rooted in Thai culture but with a Western impression. As such, the one-storey structure has a typical Thai high-pitched roof, coloured pure white, while the materials used in the interior such as art nouveau-patterned tiles give the house a feel of the West.

Summadee Somjit, the older daughter with her husband and two children, will occupy A-house. Summadee wanted a tropical house with a modern environment. Located at the deep end of the site, the three-story house has a modern architectural language: a simple glass box, covered by a double-layered roof with metal sheets and aluminium louvres to protect the house from direct sunlight. A wooden sunscreen protects the house from heat radiating through the glass windows.

The youngest son, Teerasit Sophonsiri, will live in C-house with his wife. The three-storey house is located at the front of the site and, like his sister’s house, it is covered by two slanting metal roofs and cantilevered aluminium louvres. There is a continuation of outdoor space, from the ground floor terrace to the second floor deck and to the third floor sky deck. Materials were selected to take into account heat absorption, which explains the metal sheets and wooden sunscreens.

The shape of the site is long and narrow, and the houses face west. Therefore, the architects incorporated a very long and wide double-layered metal roof, integrated with aluminium louvres. As a unifying feature, wooden sunscreens were subtlely integrated into the three houses. Other passive design techniques responding to the local climate include the use of lightweight materials such as metal sheet and glass, and having negative pressurised space at terraces and integrated skydeck to invite more ventilation.

The houses are built of reinforced concrete, with an integration of long span steel trusses. Wood, aluminium, glass and metal sheets are the main materials. All the materials were chosen to avoid overheating the interiors. –Patida Vorakitnitiphan/Candice Lim