Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2021
Blind House
- A' Design Award 2021 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2021
- CLIENT: Boondesign
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 26,015
- Verification code 46925CDCC9 · Verify this award
About Blind House
Blind is a private house in Bangkok, Thailand, designed as a quiet sanctuary for living and for the practice of meditation. The glazed ground floor holds an open plan living and dining area set between a reflective pond and a sculptural hill. The hill, inspired by origami, covers a sunken garage and a shrine. A long concrete plane rests on the transparent facade, so the upper floor appears to float above the landscape. The upper level is clad in a steel lattice that offers privacy and filters sunlight into the two bedrooms.
Blind House by Boonlert Hemvijitraphan stands as a distinguished exemplar of contemporary residential architecture that engages profoundly with questions of materiality, transparency, and the phenomenological experience of dwelling within landscape. The work participates in a rich lineage of modernist architectural investigation, evoking the material honesty championed by practitioners who sought authentic expression through weathering steel and the dissolution of boundaries between interior and exterior realms. The deployment of corten steel for the upper volume represents a sophisticated engagement with temporal materiality, as the surface develops its protective patina through exposure to atmospheric conditions, thereby inscribing the passage of time directly onto the building's skin. This chromatic warmth of oxidized ferrous tones establishes a dialogue with the organic hues of the surrounding vegetation, suggesting an architecture that aspires to participate in rather than dominate its natural setting. The expansive reflecting pool functions as more than mere decorative water feature; it creates a contemplative threshold, a zone of transition and meditation that prepares inhabitants and visitors for entry into the domestic realm while simultaneously doubling the architectural presence through perfect reflection. The transparency of the ground floor, achieved through extensive glazing, creates visual porosity that allows the verdant landscape to flow through the building's core, effectively dematerializing the conventional boundary between built and natural environments. The dramatic cantilever of the upper volume demonstrates structural confidence while creating sheltered outdoor space below, a gesture that extends habitable territory beyond the building envelope into the landscape itself. The restrained material palette of steel, glass, and water speaks to a design philosophy that values authenticity and the inherent beauty of well-chosen materials allowed to express their essential nature. Viewers might contemplate how this dwelling proposes a particular relationship between human habitation and the natural world, one characterized by respect, integration, and quiet contemplation.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The urban sanctuary in the middle of Bangkok features a glazed ground floor enclosing the main living areas. An origami-inspired sculptural hill makes room for a sunken garage and shrine while its row of hedges conceals the upper level from view. Resting on the transparent facade, a concrete plane supporting the second story creates the illusions of a mass floating above the landscape. The upper level is clad in a rusted metal lattice to offer privacy but still filters in sunlight
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Area: 350 Sq.m.
- Tags
- Architecture, Landscape, Private residence, Rusted steel, Concrete wall, Reflective pond, Origami hill
- Production Technology
- Platina steel, Tempered glass door and window with customized aluminium frame, Laminated wood panel, concealed motorised mosquito net, granite stone, Platina steel lattice
- Design Challenge
- To levitate the 31meters long concrete slab, glazed façade is applied on the ground floor. In similar fashion with modern architecture, the lean steel column was placed behind a continuous strip of glass, as well as, the turn up beam, which strengthened the concrete slab, is setting back from edges creating an illusion of floating concrete plane from all views. To complete the sense of hovering, The slab protrudes out of the steel column over 13 meters. With the help of the concrete tunnel bearing wall, this notion of floating is achievable.
The contour of Origami hill was created according to the car shape in order to function as a carport on the other side, in other words, the absent matter (the carport) defines what is presence (the hill). The hill structure is very challenging for the engineer. The structure needs to withstand the carport span while carrying sufficient soil for the lawn. - Project Duration
- Project Completed: 2013
Location: Bangkok, Thailand - Operation Flow
- Enter the Arrival court, an empty space paved with cobblestone, which leads to the porch. The open plan living area on ground level, sits between a reflective pond on one side and a hill on the other. Walk up to the second floor into the bedroom, the sense of bright and open is replaced by a dimness of a platina steel lattice. Out by the side door of the bedroom, onto a concrete roof slab, where the walking meditation path begins and continues through the hill back to the ground floor.
- Research
- The Blind house was built to be a sanctuary for the owner to live and practice meditation. The house is required to perform a simple function such as open plan dining-living , two- bedrooms, and space for meditation. The challenge was the seamless experience of space; The presence of architecture articulates the space or its absence to bring the notion of the absent matter.
- Inspiration
- The urban sanctuary in the middle of Bangkok features a glazed ground floor enclosing the main living areas. An origami-inspired sculptural hill makes room for a sunken garage and shrine while its row of hedges conceals the upper level from view. Resting on the transparent facade, a concrete plane supporting the second story creates the illusions of a mass floating above the landscape. The upper level is clad in a platina metal lattice to offer a sense of privacy but still filters in the sunlight. With an interior that is sleek, minimal, and lined in natural materials, the dwelling creates a relaxing space for Zen living and practicing meditation in the city.
- Image Credits
- Image#1:Photographer Wison Tungthunya, WWorkspace, 2013.
Image#2:Photographer Wison Tungthunya, WWorkspace, 2013.
Image#3:Photographer Wison Tungthunya, WWorkspace, 2013.
Image#4:Photographer Wison Tungthunya, WWorkspace, 2013.
Image#5:Photographer Wison Tungthunya, WWorkspace, 2013.
Colors of Blind House
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Sanctuary Architecture Design Services
We create sanctuary spaces that harmonize modern living with contemplative tranquility. Our architectural practice specializes in residential designs that balance transparency, privacy, and connection to nature through innovative materials and thoughtful spatial experiences.
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