SIRI HOUSE

AWARDS

2017

• The American Architecture Prize 2017 (AAP) by The American Architecture Prize: Winner in Residential Architecture
• 2A Asia Architecture Award (2AAA) by 2A Magazine: Third Place in Old & New

2016

• Arcasia Awards for Architecture 2016 (AAA) by Architect Regional Council Asia: Honorable Mention
• ASA Architectural Design Awards by The Association of Siamese Architect under Royal Patronage: Citation Award

2015

• Best 10 Houses (10 Baan Na Yuu) by Baan Lae Suan Magazine

SIRI house is a renovation project of a commercial building. It serves a big family of four siblings, including the future family members. The existing commercial building is over 40 years old with a trapezoid-like plan that narrows sharply towards the back of the building. The main constraint is to utilize the available space to provide each sibling a compact private unit comprising of a rest area, a pantry, bedrooms as well as a living room with natural light well.

The design process began with the idea of creating a compact unit for each member. The designers would like each living unit to have two stories with different space articulation, despite the owner’s request to make one unit on each floor. The forming of the space refers to a well-known puzzle game, Tetris. Each puzzle has a different shape and randomly leaves a space when it doesn’t fit in the place. Looking at the whole house, one could construe a central void space as if it were the space in the game with the living units constructed around it. So, users can have visual interaction with each other. They can see each other moving around throughout the day. Besides, the central space was developed further and turned out to be an inner courtyard allowing natural light to brighten all units. The house has two courts inside, one is at the center, and the other is at the rear. The solution also eliminates the typical problem of the dimmed natural light in the attached building.

The main entrance to the living units is at the rear of the building, grouped with the elevator and stairs. The common area and dining room for the whole family are on the top floor. The ground floor is a jewelry shop facing to the front. These two spaces are also designed to be duplex. The other stories are planned for the living units. However, the arrangement of the overlapping units, the newly-added bathroom, and the light well could be possible only by removing some part of the floor area.  The new additional steel structure was necessarily introduced to strengthen the weathered building. The façade design reflects the composition of the units while at the same time presenting the image of the family’s jewelry business.

BANGKOK, THAILAND

DESIGN : 2012 / COMPLETION : 2015

ARCHITECT : IDIN ARCHITECTS

INTERIOR DESIGNER : IDIN ARCHITECTS

PHOTOGRAPHER : SPACESHIFT STUDIO

AREA : 800 SQ.M.