THE OTHER's PLACE
Ekaphap Duangkaew
A Young architect born in Chiang Mai, Thailand. A founder of EKAR and Co-founder of NOTDS, an experience architect in public and residential architecture, most of his projects are in Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai) which is a mixture of local and urban.
T-House
T-House, a combination of home, office, a warehouse, plus a residence for family expansion.According to an initial requirement of the project owner, Khun Noppawarat Pornputhakul, the main functions of T-House were created to support her family business, a cloth wholesaller from Pratunam District. To maintain the circulations and routine of the old house in Nonthaburi Province, a new built needed to be not just only a residence for an expanding family plus a small garment storage, but also needed to include an additional space for a new office and prepare an area for a further phase of family extension.
To aggregate the owner’s aspiration with a design, EKAR pulled out the essences of Pornputhakul family and blended them together with Thai living habit and Western ideal; a mixture of a Tropical Architecture with Modernity, to result a simple-formed structure. As a wholesaller of the undergarment, this cloth line was designed to be simple and monochrome mainly using white, grey and black. Because of holding a believe which the underwear needed to be shown focusing on its cutting and fabric more than its striking patterns, thus EKAR introduced this characteristic through the house with an idea of minimalism.
By stacking two T-shaped staircases, the designers intended to create the crossed circulation between two zones, the public zone and the private zone. As a result, an executive room on the second floor is able to view the activities of the habitant happened on the ground floor through the double-volume space. Two bedrooms on the second floor were also placed facing each other on the opposite sides. Both are connecting together with the bridge, thus the owner is able to see the working area down below at all time. Living space on ground floor was planned despite the criteria of owner’s mother who would like to have a traditional Thai living room, one that consisted ‘Tang or big wooden sofa bed.’ The designer, therefore, transformed the form of the olden Tang using the western-styled sofa to form a new different shape with multi-functions of sofa bed. The transformation of cotton is also brought to apply with the ceiling pattern to make the house more unique.
The exterior appearance is shaped despite the pure geometric form to reflect each function straightforwardly inside out. The finalized design turned out to be simple and literally symmatry. EKAR swirled the building shape following to the weather condition; to protect the house from receiving the direct sunlight and heat from the West. The team also designed a high-pitched roof above Jaibaan boundary to express how to avoid and retain the natural light. The position of 30 windows composited around the house were intregrated thoughtfully according to human scale and responding to human functions of which creating the unique views and new dimensions for this house. The design of long roof eaves were derived from Thai traditional element, although the architects had re-designed them to be able to fold and extrude when in need. Made of the 50-centimeter-sized Aluminum sheet, it creates the pure clean appearance for the house exterior.
MUTLI PLACE
Thailand is a beautiful and busy city, thus it have a lot of pollution. This project turn a typical shophouse in the city full of pollution, noise and messy context into a mixed use shophouse, which Thai people have a habit of using the facade of their building as advertisement, where they think the signboard will help out their business.
This project was developed under such conditions. From the aspect of the clients, the buildings need to be able to live and work. The architects maximized the limited space of to support the clients’ businesses, including pharmacy, veterinary clinic, pets shop, hostel, cafe and rental meeting rooms.
Also, the separated residential areas for two families needed to portray a detached house-like feeling to this mix use buildings. 
By concealing their own privacy from the prying eyes as well as dust and noise pollution, concrete screen blocks became the best solution for the facade. Composing the multiple patterned concrete screen blocks together screened the pollution yet allowed air flow smoothly and created privacy for people inside without feeling cramped. Align with the garden design, the lighting from the interior could pass through the combination of the concrete screen blocks meaningfully casting countless shadow effects on the architecture.
ReGEN House
Re-gen House project is based on the client where the family principle of few generation have to stay together, which the client plan to build a house for the next generation that is his daughter named "Meena".
Each generation is a separate building that links to the other house within the same compound. It is designed this way so that it is easily access to her parent’s house to maintain the Thai culture. The garden is built on the ground floor which connect to the upper floor as a pleasant view and better ventilation. The project is well designed for future expansion to accommodate the new generations.
The Temple Washroom
This project of Ekaphap is to beautify the existing washroom located in the Temple, Ekaphap think that washroom is not only for us to do our "business" but a private space for us to be yourself to relax, and to take a break in life.
This project inject nature into the space where it merge with the temple environment where is peaceful. The greenery also act as a privacy control for the space, he also make it so that the washroom was easy to be maintain the cleanness due to lack of labour.
Q&A
1. ‘As as young architect, how do you start up your firm? ‘
Ekaphap : I took part in a competition and won in New York. You have to have passion in architecture to be success. After the won competition is published in Thailand magazines, the first client contacted him, which is the T-House owner. The young architects do not be afraid to try, there will be a lot opportunity out there.
2. ‘What is the production and progress when you are designing?’
Ekaphap : Before designing, I have to determine the purpose of the architecture. I always ask myself, “what is it build for?”. For example, The temple toilet project, how to make people come and can have a rest place. Next only find out the answer or solution to the issue. Besides, I have to deal with the client too. Lastly, architecture is not just about the building, it’s more about the core value.
3. ‘What advise can you give to the young architect?’
Ekaphap : ‘You have to be brave. Have to know about yourself first. When you are stuck in designing, try to make it simple first as you do not have enough experience. Architecture require a lot of practice and philosophy. I have worked for 5 years in a firm in Thailand to gain experience. At the same time, I worked as freelancer as well throughout this 5 years.’
You need to be brave all the times. When you are stuck in designing, try to make it simple from the beginning. Lots of practices should be done before staring up own career. I have worked for 5 years in a big architecture firm in Thailand for gaining experience while working as freelancer as well throughout the 5 years.
4. ‘Does weather in Thailand influenced your architecture? Is it a big factor to be considered in your architecture?’
Ekaphap : ‘Yes. Because Chiang Mai has chill season also. But to me, culture is the main aspect instead of climate. The way Chiang Mai people think is different from the city. They love art and beauty of nature. Every 100 meter you can find a temple in Chiang Mai. They respect the nature and understand the context. I would say that Chiang Mai has the “spirit”. ‘
5. ‘Which and who is the architect influenced you the most?’
Ekaphap : ‘In 3 or 4 years back, there is an architect style that I referred a lot which is Vo Trong Nghia , a Vietnam architect. But now, I try to learn and use my own ways in designing and thinking.’
6. ‘How do you differentiate you and your partners’ work?’
Ekaphap : ‘We only have 8 people in my firm. Me myself and my partner, together with 6 staffs. There is no specific role for each person. We share our thought and knowledge together. And these help us balance each other.’
7. All of you design seem like modernist architecture. How do your designs incorporate with Thailand culture?’
Ekaphap : ‘I use the elements of Thailand and applied in my design like the Thai stool in T-House. Once you look at it, you will know that it is from Thailand. My designs are more to context of the site. The form of the building does not have to be looked like Thailand style , it could be the culture of Thailand.’
8. ‘Is it important being just a Thai architect in Thailand?’
Ekaphap : ‘It is not about Thai, it is about the context. A building must have many elements to look thai, but I usually use only 1 element, like the Temple Washroom. There are a lot of skyscrapper can be found nowadays, so why not focus on other things, like the thai elements and culture. Form does not represent thai but the elements do.’
REFERENCE
1. http://www.archdaily.com/535238/t-house-notds
2. http://www.archdaily.com/805560/multi-place-ekar
3. https://www.facebook.com/ekar.architects/