A house is a reflection of its dwellers. This is particularly true in the case of Baan Suan Sa-nghob. As the home of an architect and his wife, the house neatly combines his two lifelong passions; flying and architecture. Both the overall form and its architectonic details were custom designed to either capture aerodynamic lines or mimic mechanical components of an airplane.

Walking through the house, one recognizes different mechanical tectonics; suspensions, rollers, nuts and bolts, to name a few. Here, it is as if a flying machine has transformed, or even metamorphosed into a work of architecture. With its machine aesthetic and a sense of unsurpassed lightness, the outcome is a poetic reinterpretation of the modern glass box. Steel and glass, intermittently interjected by wood and fair-faced concrete, are carefully composed to reflect the spirit of the machine without foregoing the tropical sense of place.

Although symbolic forms play a vital role in the design, they do so without sacrificing practicality. The interior spaces and their locations also echo the owners’ daily routine; this was made simple by the fact that the couple shares much of their lifestyle. As such, the mere 350 square meter floor area is utilized to its fullest and most efficient capacity. The dining room, for example, is equipped with a large pivoting glass door, which, when opened, merges the interior space with the outdoor pool deck, thus allowing it to host a large number of guests for a pool-side party.

Yet, such a dream house may never have been perfectly materialized had it not been for its unique setting. With year-round blazing sun and stifling heat, Bangkok is far from being an ideal setting for a glass house. Baan Suan Sanghob, though located right in the city, is situated in a private arboretum that is a lush, dense oasis of rare tropical plants amidst the banal urban topography of the area. In fact, the 3-dimensional volume of the house was carefully designed with specific locations and heights of the existing trees in mind. Practically, the house is inserted into its place without cutting down any large trees at all. And, in turn, these trees became the house’s natural shading devices, a natural veil, transforming the direct glaring sun into speckles of ever-shifting, soft, green light while also shielding it from any possible visual intrusion. In fact, these trees are the house’s only neighbors, providing it with a perfect camouflage; being inside, one hardly feels the presence of a wall, only the cheerful embrace of nature.





Here, both human and his machine gracefully bow to Mother Nature. It is as if after a long, long journey, the machine and its pilot finally found a perfect place to rest, to dwell peacefully in eternal bliss.