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Architects: Creative Crews
- Area: 18000 m²
- Year: 2019
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Photographs:Rungkit Charoenwat, Spaceshift Studio, Takdanai Raktawat
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Manufacturers: L and E lighting, WK Block
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Lead Architects: Puiphai Khunawat, Ekkachan Eiamananwattana
Text description provided by the architects. The X2 Pattaya Oceanphere is a villa resort situated in Pattaya, a well-developed beach town with cliché tourist destinations, hotels, and resorts chains. The site is located on the eastern seaboard of Thailand, facing the Gulf of Thailand where there are long stretches of beaches without much dramatic rocky or cliff terrain. The architectural language of the villa resort is derived from the aim to create man-made landscape with available materials and efficient construction methods.
The site has a mild sloping contour with 500 meters offset from the beach line. Upon arrival, there is a monolithic cliff-like 3 story building with escalating landscaped steps, a club house with an arrival lobby, the back of house at ground floor, a restaurant at second floor, and the main pool at the third floor. These facilities were raised to bring the guests to the elevation where they can thoroughly enjoy the scenic sea view. The villas are arranged following the existing slope with minimum cut and fill operations to allow for the second floor of most villas to accommodate the ocean view.
The plan of the villa is separated into two distinct parts. The first part is the main living and sleeping area while the second part is dedicated to services and circulation. The living area was designed as an open space which can be enclosed with high glass sliding doors or slide and fold doors which can be completely concealed when open.
While the service area is treated as solid cliff-like walls, it is constructed with local concrete blocks with customized edge profile forming the tapered front façade of doubling also as an exposed rain waterway, connecting roof gutter to on ground landscape site drain. This block wall was developed into the larger and deeper walls incorporating all the services, lift cores and resting areas of the club house. The overall architectural design aims to prove that simple tectonic and natural mechanisms can be appreciated when highlighted properly.
