A Cleverly Designed Bangkok Residence Fits Two Homes Into One

When Sirichai Baimongkol approached Pantang Studio with a housing project in Bangkok, he enticed the Chiang Mai–based practice with an atypical renovation brief. Sirichai challenged the firm to transform a three-story residence in the Thai capital’s Ekamai neighborhood into a flexible home that could be used as a single house or as a duplex with two independent rental units.

“His idea for this house made it much more interesting than a simple renovation,” say the architects, who had worked on renovation projects before, but relished the opportunity to flex their creative muscles. “The question then was ‘how to fit two houses in one?’ In order to solve this problem, we analyzed the plans of the existing building and defined the stairwell as the central element of our new project.”