Mirin House
The aesthetics of a house that designs 'rhythm' like a cinematic narrative.

Even though the house serves as a place for people to unwind on a daily basis, it’s not often that the house will make us feel like going to a decent resort or pool villa on vacation. As for Mirin House, a family residential house in Rama 5, three family members desire to build a new house to become a Pool Villa, connecting the family’s old houses so they won’t have to travel far to relax. The architect team from Ayutt and Associates design (AAd) sought to utilize the whimsical nature of light and various rhythms of the architectural space to draw on the surrounding environment to create relaxation and aesthetics inside this house.

The story of this house simply begins with the owner purchasing an additional plot of land roughly 100 square meters adjacent to the house in which they reside on a daily basis. On this new parcel of property, they plan to construct a pool villa. However, because the environment is in a housing development surrounded by neighbors, beautiful views are essentials. As a result, the designer categorized the challenges into four categories. First and foremost, the architecture must be beautiful and visible to the occupants. The second step is the landscape design as a view from inside the house. The next consideration is the interior, which must be comfortable. Last is the work of art that fills the atmosphere. All of which the architect is attempting to blend together.

01 Aesthetics of accessibility
Designing a house is like narrating a movie

“For one thing, we believe that 90% of people perceive architecture through photographs or magazines. It is perceived by the eye, but it is much deeper than that. As a result, I tried to incorporate many senses into the design of this house because beauty is more than just what the eyes see. For example, when you walk into the house, you can feel the wind, smell, be exposed to light, or hear a sound. It’s all about creating a space that I try to establish,” explained The Architect of Ayutt and Associates design (AAd).

“In fact, telling stories is similar to watching movies. In the rhythm of each story, if we talk about something, it must stand out.”  

Starting from the front door and garage designed in pitch black and without downlights to control a theater-like feel for everyone to adjust the pupils as color is the catalyst of light, making the pupils dilate and get better perception of colors and nature. Then, there’s a small opening with a view of the red rammed earth walls and green plants before transitioning into a zigzag landscape.  The architect intended to create a detour to make the house appear larger and to create an aesthetic that forces the homeowner to walk through the landscape to enjoy nature.

Curved walkways and elevating landscapes increase the surface area of the landscape allowing visitors who pass through the house to touch the leaves with their hands, and there is compacted soil designed to form a tree tray, as well as seats where we can feel the coolness of natural materials.

02 Three levels of perception
Worm’s-Normal-Bird’s eye view

“One of the fun things about this house is that visitors will not see the entrance to pool villa, but everyone will know they have to walk this way but they cannot see the door, so we increase the enjoyment with human curiosity.”

After walking through the curved landscape, the house will be raised to the level of the original house’s second floor because the architect intends to create a situation in which people walk into the house with a Worm’s-eye view perception (most houses are designed with a Normal-eye view perception). This also corresponds with functions, as the area below acts as the basement of a Thai house, allowing the wind to pass through before the new and old houses meet in Normal -eye view on the second floor. This can also help to block out unsightly views from neighbors.

The swimming pool, which is elevated on the second floor of the house, also provide a Bird’s Eye View of the landscape giving this house a 3-level perception perspective from a house that is not very large to appear more spacious from techniques that play with the users’ feelings.

Furthermore, the level of the swimming pool on the second floor can be transformed into a space with light by dividing it into dimensions of light and dark shadows based on nature.

03 Importance of Art and Interior space
Maximize Minimalism

When entering the interior, everything goes black before the view opens to a glass window with the sky in the background, allowing residents to see nature in a different dimension and aiding in the creation of a sense of relaxation.

“Choosing to use black color is very impactful because many times when we go into the white color Double volume space, our eyes will be stinging because of too much natural light. We open large windows to let in plenty of natural light and opt for a dark room to reduce glare. In this house, curtains are unnecessary. The bedroom, on the other hand, will be all white because the owner will use it at night. So, I wanted the light from the landscape to enter the bedroom and become a light source.”

In the living room area, on the day when natural light shines, we will see a sculpture at the back that is inspired by nature surrounding the house, such as trees and cladding stone because it is designed to be a small court with natural light as a spotlight to illuminate the sculpture, which will change the shade of the reflection from time to time.

The bathroom is a space that is equally significant to the pool villa’s design. The designer used a floor to ceiling black glass wall to open the view to the swimming pool but with many layers of glass stacking to block the view from the outside. People outside, where it is brighter, are unable to see inside the darker bathroom. When the lights are on at night, the light combines on the Sculpture that is made to look like a curtain. This helps lessen the impact that the light runs in the person’s direction, allowing them to use the bathroom without worrying about their privacy.

04 Façade
The appearance of architecture

As for the exterior, façades, one of AAD’s unique designed, was in aluminum for its easy to maintain functionality. It does not require painting and can last for many decades (when compared to painted masonry walls). Aluminum naturally gets stains, but with a triangle folding pattern design, natural light and shadows make those stains less obvious.

The triangular fold with perforations on top and bottom also allows natural air to circulate inside. The architect selected to utilize a material that absorbs heat effectively as a heat absorber on one wall of the home using the coolness of the wind to cool down the heat before reaching the masonry walls inside the house. In addition, in terms of aesthetics, this folding façade also plays with the dimension of light and shadow, which varies all the time depending on the degree of light, in the morning, day, and evening, so the color of the façade is not the same in each period.

The Architect

“If you ask me what I appreciate best about this house, I would say that I appreciate the thoroughness of space and aesthetics, rather than merely functionality, because the owners comprehend and experience these aspects differently than other customers. They can perceive everything when I input the design work. So, this is the attractiveness of the house,” the architect concludes.

Writer
Rangsima Arunthanavut

Rangsima Arunthanavut