Often dubbed as the Asian Ralph Lauren, Jim Thompson’s products are instant smash hits in a market overflowing with sophisticated luxury home furnishing. Being both unique and classic at the same time, without a doubt is the secret to the Jim Thompson. Nothing looks like it and it never seems to go out of style.
This villa type is an outstanding example of adapting long-revered Japanese building traditions to 21st-century lifestyles. Floor-to-ceiling glass over two levels, with an appearance of lightness and weightlessness. Based on the principle of Shakkei (‘borrowed scenery’), the home capitalizes on its natural surroundings and landscape to enhance the residence itself.
We decided to develop a design to be ‘of’ the earth it was located on, rather than ‘on’ it, using the soil itself as the primary construction material for rammed earth load-bearing walls. The result is a masterful juxtaposition of contemporary design and traditional construction, an ode to the simple and honest construction methods.
Building your dream home at Hin Fah allows a choice from a varied selection of elegant villa types with flexible floor plans. Each villa engages a series of environmentally sensitive aspects of the architecture ensuring that the habitat blends with the natural surroundings while also offering unique luxurious living spaces. Low density planning allows for huge plots of nature to exist between habitats providing tremendous privacy and security. The community was also designed with more than 20% of its land dedicated to recreational purposes for homeowners to enjoy. The result is a harmonious balance between human habitat and the elements of sand, mountain and sky.
Creating a quintessential new luxury address for Koh Samui requires extensive planning, lengthy discussion, and an endless supply of inspiration. Such a challenge has regularly called on the talents of experienced Swiss and Thai architects and interior designers who together form Hin Fah’s core design team.
Erik Schmid from Erix-Design shares the gratifications, challenges, and motivations of being tasked with the architecture design of the island’s new luxury gated community.
HIN FAH, meaning ‘Sky Rock’, is located near the sleepy, peaceful fishing village of Thong Krut on the southwest coast of Koh Samui. The development is built on more than 150 rai (240,000 square meters) of dazzling land that snakes down the hillside of an undulating 3-kilometer ridge blanketed by swaths of emerald palm trees. The land is being conscientiously developed over time to include private luxury estates, opulent hospitality for visitors, and boutique retail and wellness services that cohesively complement the worry-free lifestyle savored by Koh Samui’s inhabitants. 😎🌴🇹🇭
With its evolution into a lifestyle space, the bathroom is experiencing the return of color as well. The colour transgressions of the 60s and 70s are forgotten – the main thing is to avoid boredom at all costs. Bathroom planners and the industry are responding to the desire for individually and boldly designed bathrooms with an ever growing variety of finishes and unusual arrangements.
Wonderfruit festival has launched in Thailand occupying a temporary community of creative pavilions designed by London-based Ab Rogers Design. The pavilions – that vary in function from performance venues, kitchen and dining and relaxation – all make use of local resources, indigenous craft techniques and are specific to the culture and landscape of Thailand.
The modern concept of luxury isn’t identified by wealth or prestige. Rather, it refers to quality, durability, timeless appeal and sustainable architecture and home design. Luxurious properties are not only characterized by their recognizably indulgent atmosphere, but they are also hubs of eco-friendly upgrades and smart features. Over the recent years, eco-friendly design has become one of the most sought-after qualities, increasing the value of properties on the market. In combination with deluxe amenities, such a design becomes the ultimate expression of luxury.
One of the greatest advantages of prefabricated construction would be financial savings. Although the perception of custom-made pieces may seem expensive, with prefabricated or modular construction, this is not the case. Modular construction targets all budgets and price points, creating an affordable option.
The tropical climate subverted and softened modernism into a new form – taking the formal qualities and essential concepts of modernism, yet adapting the style with local materials and techniques better suited to the environment. Methods of passive cooling and sustainable construction developed over the centuries by local architects, builders and designers familiar with the challenges – and advantages – of the warm, humid temperatures of the tropics were employed within the definition of modernism to create a new style now considered a movement of its own.
