Sebsiri House

Written by Omar Dahabra

Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Year: 2023
Architects: PHTAA Living Design
Photography by: Kukkong Thirathomrongkiat

Sebsiri house is a renovated project of an old building that used to be a garment factory and printing houses in the past. This building was abandoned more than a decade before Mr. Sebastian and Mrs. Sirinapa decided to buy this commercial building to make a home.

Radical of Site
Sebsiri house is located in the heart of Bangkok. In a community where the surrounding context is a residence area. This building is hidden at the end of the alley. The location of this building is private, peaceful, suitable for modifying the form of use as a home. One side of the building is adjacent to the neighbor's dwellings. and on the other side is vacant land, an open area. This allows the planning of buildings on this side to be connected to the outside area and has a large opening. On the other hand, another side of the building that is adjacent to the neighbor's house is designed to make the building facade quite dense. And there are openings as necessary to create privacy for the homeowner.

Open Space / Semi-outdoor space
"We dream of an open space house that is airy, comfortable and exposed to the tropical climate.' This is the desire of a French homeowner who migrated to a tropical city like Bangkok. With these requirements, we provided open space, air circulation system, both of vertical and horizontal connection ,as well as the creation of a semi-outdoor space which are the main idea to designing this house.

Structure
This almost 100 year old building was originally built with a columnar-beam structure system. According to the general commercial building model at that time, the structure in the grid line system is very strong.  The architect intends to keep the ‘existing structure’ of this building by revealing and hiding in a different form at appropriate areas.

The internal space of the factory was larger than 700 square meters, which is more than necessary for living. Including the need to create open spaces, architects chose to demolish the floor and some walls both the part that is attached to the outside of the building and inside the building which are unnecessary for new upcoming activities. The demolition of some spaces is the intention of creating an open plan space. Enhance volume of space to create ventilation. Therefore, the original building revealed the existing structure to see more clearly.

Architectural elements
For this house, the stair is the main circulation, the stair also serves to connect the common areas of the whole house. In addition to the main function of the stair as a walkway, the area around the stairs that are open for the path of the wind (ventilation) creates comfort conditions. The architect chose to use a bridge to connect the functional subunits of the house. To open up the vertical space to be airy and open in the large common areas such as dining tables, kitchens and multipurpose open spaces, architects chose to use curtains (curtain as wall) instead of solid walls to make this area open as a single large area.

Trace of architecture
'Architectural traces' is an interesting topic in building renovations. Choosing to keep the old in the structure and add the new is another main intention in design. For the Sebsiri house, the architect intended to reveal the grid system of columns-beams. The pattern that is used as a design tool is a new way of dividing the wall. To shift the wall, not in the same grid line as columns-beams grid system, the internal space is divided into more sub-unit functions. This space planning is suitable for a variety of activities in the home such as living room, bedroom, kitchen, laundry room, as well as storage room.

In terms of physical design, the architect chose contrast materials and the architectural shape to the existing. So, the old structure that was intended to be preserved clearly reveals itself which can be seen. There are obviously 3 architectural outstanding components. Firstly, interior at the area of old concrete beams revealing the strength of the original cement materials in the stairwell and library area. On the outside, like the facade of the building, the walls have been moved away from the grid system, revealing the original columns and beams in a graphic form. Lastly, the connection area between the interior and exterior, the sloping glass facade which was intended to be installed to show the straight line of the beam. Text description by the architects.

Source: www.phtaa.com
Area: 450 sq.m.
Engineer: Angkarn Krasuaythong

Omar Dahabra
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