THE WATERFALL HOUSE

On the crowded 560 square-meter area, approximately 100 meters from the Ratchayothin intersection, the context of this land is surrounded by apartments, schools, and residences. We questioned how we could design this house to be private but yet still connected to the context of the main city, considering what would affect the privacy of the house and the owner. Due to the living space conditions and the size of the land, this house has been designed vertically by necessity.
The initial design plan was to arrange accessibility, starting from the public area, semi-area, and private area. The common area will be placed on the first floor, while the second and third floors will mainly serve the family, consisting of sleeping rooms and the living room. Given the crowded area and noise from traffic, we designed the swimming pool to be situated on the second floor as it's the main family space. The response we received, aside from the continuous accessibility through the family's living room, was the waterfall pouring down to the first floor. The slate rock used to build the waterfall helps reduce the annoying sound from outside. Additionally, when there are guests on the first floor, the sound of this waterfall will equalize the volume, preventing it from interrupting the activities of the family above.
In consideration of the family's privacy and neighbors, we designed a tall and opaque wall on the north side adjoining the apartment. Apart from maintaining privacy, the wall reflects direct sunlight from the south, turning it into indirect light to brighten the family's rooms throughout the day. The side that does not adjoin the neighbor is left open, as we still want to capture some aspects of the city living context. There are other parts of the house where the cityscape can be valued and seen as we desire.
We constructed straightforward architecture in each of the living areas in this house. In the semi-public space, we decided to create a building void connected to both internal and external areas clearly. On the contrary, the private area will have a massive appearance but still provides enough space for clerestory and ventilation.
Given the vertical characteristic of this house located in a tropical wet zone, we discovered a way to ventilate the tropical air mass from inside to outside. We introduced a vertical funnel into many parts of the house, as naturally, heat will rise due to air pressure. This allows the heat to move up into the funnel and be replaced automatically by the air from outside.
We expect that our intention in questioning and resolving the issues in this design will provide comfort for the new residents to adjust themselves to the new context of the house. Having learnt from the context, we narrated the life of the residents to seamlessly integrate with their new surroundings.