Project: Nara House
Architects: Nirostina Nisani
Location: Muang Narathiwat, Thailand,
Area: 3,875 sf
Year: 2022
Photographs by: Beer Singnoi
Nara House by Nirostina Nisani
The old wooden house, a single-story shophouse, has been replaced by a new house that needs to be expanded to meet the needs of the growing family. Dealing with a limitation of only 4m wide, and a disordered form of the land, to be challenging of design criteria, thinking about what the house would look like or even manage a narrow space and unpredictable mass that would still be able to divide the proportion of the extended family. It’s a key design challenge.
The house is functioned in order of access, by having the original store section in front. Open the middle area to be Inner Courtyard to separate store from the main house but it is still connected by an exposed corridor on the second floor through the courtyard.
An Open Inner Courtyard in the middle is also the intention to expose the natural light and the space inside. Legal restrictions prevent us from opening the side of the house. The natural light and the connecting corridors opened as SKYLIGHT making the house more transparent and solving the house narrow front. The back of the house is classified as a family space with stairwell and dining room to Open Courtyard in the middle, the bedroom at the end of the Circulation of the building’s final access.
The stairwell is designed to be wheeled with Open Courtyard as a Double Volume, which connects the functions. Open up a full mirror to receive full natural light and see Courtyard from the inside thoroughly.
The narrow interior space is combined with furniture, arranged in parallel with the house, along the stairs and the wall to increase usable space. White and black tone materials make the interior more distinctive and interesting. Add a touch of black and white with natural stone and wooden floors to make the interior lively.
The facade is designed to blend with the neighboring wooden houses, but also to adjust the height to make the building less dense and transparent. The wooden doors in front of the house can be opened and closed according to usage and change the appearance of the house when choosing to open or close. This is playful design, simple and hard to predict its functions inside from the outside.
-Project description and images provided by Nirostina Nisani
Drawings
