pivoting around the stairway. It contains a guest bathroom with a laminated, corrugated glass wall and benchtop made from recycled teak, a gym, the parents’ room, an open-plan dry kitchen, a dining area and a double-height living area. The space can be opened up to the timber deck through fine steel-framed security doors off the kitchen and large sliding glass doors off the living area.
The spacious living area, with its contrasting facing walls, is the hub of the house. One wall is fully timber-panelled to conceal generous storage and is topped by clerestory windows, the other (by the stairwell to level 3) is a rendered wall with a Buddha shrine near the top, which doubles as a window from the master bedroom.
Level 3 houses the master bedroom and a music room for live performances. The music room has folding glass doors which open out on to the living space, effectively making the room a stage for performances. Heavy, carved traditional doors from India help isolate the room acoustically, while a bell and a red flashing light notify the musicians that there is somebody at the front door. The lady of the house has added a folding door to separate the master bedroom from the noise emanating from the music room!
This is a house that sustains an extended family and, through the use of recycled timber, their ties to their northern Thai origins. The inclusion of a wind chimney and the way the houses opens on to the shaded garden, means that the use of air-conditioning is reduced to the minimum. A highly flexible house, it manages to balance the occupants’ enthusiasm for entertaining with their individual needs for privacy.
The vestibule at the top of the stairs on the second level.
Floor-to-ceiling fenestration draws in natural light, while the rich vegetation outside provides sunscreening and privacy.
The double-height living area with the Buddha shrine/window at top right.
The barbeque area on the rooftop deck, which has the potential for further development.
The safari roof with its extended eaves.
The pool area enjoys ample shade from the well-established trees.
EQUILIBRIUM HOUSE
BANGKOK, THAILAND VASLAB ARCHITECTURE
Long section.
‘I like metaphor. I like meaning. I like the source of the origin and the outcome. There is a vocabulary of equilibrium throughout the house.’—Vasu Virajsilp
Sustaining the extended family in Asia has become a challenge in the new global economy, especially in the face of rapidly changing communications technology which threatens the survival of regional cultures. A younger generation of professionals has emerged who want greater independence and privacy but without necessarily losing the sense of community and continuity that the family unit provides.
As an alternative to accommodating the extended family in one building, some people have opted for family compounds, others for a variant whereby the parents buy an adjacent block of land for their children who then build their own house on it. This provides both community and privacy, with the additional benefit of added security, because each house can provide surveillance for the other. The Equilibrium House is an example of the latter solution to maintaining the extended family—connection with separation.
The client is an economics professor at a local university who lives in the house with his wife. He and the architect, Vasu Virajsilp, share the same aesthetic predisposition for clean, geometric lines and a fondness for concrete. Not surprisingly, they are both fans of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. The client requested a modern, low-maintenance home with a sense of pure form. He wanted it to have a ‘masculine’ or robust look and also that it be protective but not closed. He specified that the house be built in concrete with minimal use of other materials.
All of this suited Vasu. But, as he points out, this
is not a public building but a home. He encouraged the client to use natural materials, especially timber, to complement as well as ‘soften’ the concrete, and to incorporate lots of visual connection to the garden and water court facing his parents’ house next door and a ‘green fence’ to screen the living room from the road. The architect has also made a virtue out of the problem of getting a good concrete finish from Thai contractors by coating the concrete to 2–3 mm thickness. The look is smoother, the concrete is stronger and more durable, and maintenance is easier. The concrete also ends up with a variable tone so that it takes on a warmer and more decorative appearance. These strategies, says Vasu, make the house more liveable. Without them, it would be ‘unsustainable’.
The hallmark of the building is a chevron form, a dynamic futuristic shape which animates the building inside and out. The thrusting diagonals maintain constant visual stimulation. They are forces which seem to be continually pulling away from one another. This is first seen in the external massing of the building, with the cantilevered box of the master bedroom thrusting out towards the street and apparently against the rest of the building. The angled garage columns, which in fact conceal a drainpipe, seem to push against the roof.
Inside the house, the chevron shape is repeated throughout, but each time in a slightly different way. For example, there are variations between the three chevron-shaped windows in the master bedroom, the windows in the dining room, the detailing in the stairwell, the staircase itself, and the shaped opening on the upper landing looking down into the dining room. The chevron shape creates a rhythm throughout the house and acts as a unifying element. All these opposing forces are kept in a permanent moment of equilibrium—hence the name of the house. According to Vasu, equilibrium is also a characteristic of his client who, as an economist, likes to maintain a state of order and balance.
The house consists of a number of refined concrete blocks and planes pulling in different directions but held together in equilibrium.
The mix of chevron-shaped solids and voids gives the house a dynamic, futuristic quality.
Floor-level air vents provide natural ventilation in the dining room area.
A ‘green fence’ provides the necessary privacy to the fully transparent living room.
The house is entered through the garden courtyard and then by way of a slightly elevated transitional terrace. The living, dining and pantry areas, together with a breakfast bench, comprise one continuous space. Sliding glass doors can close off the living room if desired. Teak is used for the flooring throughout and for the stairs. Above the dining
