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International project
Adventure Hostel
IBRANCY
Situated in a close proximity to the world’s largest
weekend market in the Northern part of Bangkok,
Thailand, Adventure Hostel resides in a 4-storey typical
shop house built during the 1960s.
T
he structural framing of the Adventure Hostel is 3.6 x
3.6m, forming a 7.2m wide and 14.4m deep building;
an ideal structure that could accommodate shop
and residence together with the most economical
construction cost.
above that.
The typical layout for the shophouse is; the shop
occupies the ground floor, directly connected to the
street where all the trades could easily happen. Storage
is on the second floor, and the family units would be
However, after the Bangkok Sky train (BTS) was launched in 1999,
it became the main transportation mode in Bangkok. The colossus
structure creeps in all over the main street in CBDs to transport 250
000+ passengers a day.
This condition changed the way people live in the shophouse along
the BTS line. While the living conditions became worsen because
of the noise and privacy factor, its potential for commercial use was
greatly enhanced. Because of these reasons, many residents moved
out and rented the space for commercial use.
The client who rented the space for the hostel approached
Integrated Design Office (INDEO), a Bangkok-based design studio
led by Boonchai Tienwang. The brief was simple with only three
requirements; cheap, fast and with a Thai contemporary culture
accent.
The building is used as a low-income apartment with fourteen
12m2 rooms. All the room’s walls are made from wood, while after
the interior demolition, INDEO found a lot of windows, doors and
wood studs left over. With an economical approach, the reuse of
demolished materials became the core design idea. The door and
wall wood studs found a new life for the outdoor furniture and
africandesignmagazine.com 55