Architect Duangrit Bunnag, known for minimalist work, says his approach embodies luxury because it offers people something they don’t see every day. By Kanana  Katharangsiporn

Call him a minimalist designer, a preeminent architect, a revolutionary thinker. When Duangrit Bunnag does his job, the simple yet elegant designs often become luxury. He does not believe luxury is something related to gold, silver or diamonds but it is about differentiation that relates to a context, bringing about an identity or uniqueness. People often associate luxury with a brand, he says. But a brand is actually an outcome of luxury. A luxury brand wants to show value.

Luxury is differentiation, says the 46-year-old architect, who has often remarked in talks on design and creativity that market demand for a product is not limited to a few ideas but can vary as much as the world population of 7 billion.

“The idea of luxury varies with the individual. It must differ from the context we are living in. Its definition for each person is different,” he says.

There is no single terminology for luxury as people’s feelings about their values are not the same. For some middle-aged men, luxury could mean a brand-name object: Young people with less capacity to obtain money may also crave something physical. But working people give less thought to luxury as their values focus on achievement, not objects.

THE IDEA IS TO OFFER PEOPLE SOMETHING DIFFERENT, SOMETHING THEY DO NOT FIND IN THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES

“People consume luxury objects senselessly,” says Mr Duangrit. “Some people love design but often it is more about the design belonging to the brand.

“Luxury is for the sake of identity, for the sake of value which directly relates to a person. It adds value to him or her. It completes them and builds their confidence at a certain level.”

The same psychology can apply to designing a hotel, depending on the desires of the owner who hires the architect and the type of guests the owner expects to attract. The local fondness for Roman columns is a good example. A “luxury” hotel boasting Roman columns may have little appeal to wealthy clients who already have such objects in their own home.

The idea, says Mr Duangrit, is to offer people something different, something they do not find in their everyday lives. That helps explain the popularity of rugged-looking designs featuring exposed brick walls or glazed concrete floors.

LUXURY IS SIMPLICITY BUT PERCEIVED THROUGH ELABORATE EXPERIENCES

A luxury hotel for a wealthy Chinese entrepreneur may mean marble, but for the owner of an advertising agency that generates billings of billions a year, it may be a yacht or a boutique hotel with a simple yet elegant design that he or she regards as the ultimate experience.

Hotels are products in which luxury can be clearly signified as people need a different experience from what they encounter every day. There is growing demand for a luxury element in residential properties such as condominiums and houses, and to a smaller extent for commercial property such as offices and shopping malls.

For Mr Duangrit, though, simplicity is what guides most of the design work he does because this is what he values the most.

His creations include Costa Lanta, a hip, industrial-look resort on Koh Lanta in Krabi; X2 Resort in Kui Buri, Prachuap Khiri Khan; and Hotel de la Paix, formerly the Alila Cha-am in Phetchaburi.  These properties touch and seduce many affluent guests who might have a luxury house in a classic or modern architectural style but regard the hotels’ simple designs as luxury.

“We keep [hotel design] as simple as possible as we believe guests need something different from their daily lives,” says the managing director of Duangrit Bunnag Architect Limited (DBALP), which he established in 1998.

His simple design for Costa Lanta was named one of the Best 50 New Hotels in the World by Conde Nast Traveler (UK Edition) in 2004. It also received an honorable mention from the ASA (Association of Siamese Architects) Architectural and Design Awards in 2004 and a Gold Medal at the ARCASIAAwards in 2005.

For a property developer, luxury may be found in a location where land values are high, and a project needs to be marketed to people with higher purchasing power.

But who would have imagined a luxury condominium on Lat Phrao Road, an area few developers consider very up market? Mr Duangrit did when he designed The Issara Ladprao located between Soi Lat Phrao 12 and 14.

Aside from residential and hotel projects, his simple yet striking design approach can also be found in the HI community mall on Soi Thong Lor, which won the first prize in the ASA Architectural Competition in 2006.

In his field, Mr Duangrit admires global peers who do distinctive and groundbreaking work, such as the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

“He is an architect who has interpreted luxury in a new way. He designed the Prada Store in New York which changes the meaning of luxury.”

Others thought about platinum for its “luxury” connotations with the Italian brand. But Mr Koolhaas – named one of the World’s Most Influential People in 2008 by Time magazine and the designer of CCTV Headquarters in Beijing – used steel.

In Bangkok, the modernist Mr Duangrit regards the new Dior shop in The Emporium as a new luxury trend. The design uses double-layer large mirrors. Each has its own pattern to create dimension. The front mirror has Dior’s signature code, known as cannage. A Dior feature in many of its products, the design reflects the dynamism of the craftsmanship.

“It is very sophisticated. It can underline luxury,” he says.

“Luxury is simplicity but perceived through elaborate experiences. It must create a different experience. This is its definition.”

Whoever told you that is perhaps not a very creative person.

Think differently means you are still living in the notion of the past, simply because you are obligated to think ‘different’ from something, which is what already happened.  So you can’t be truly free from the past. Then, how you can have a clear picture of the future?

Creative thinking is about knowing where you are or who you are, but never trying to reconstruct change. Creative thinking is not about change but simply about doing some new things. If you are trying to change something, you will have to find what’s wrong with it. And if there was nothing wrong with it, you will keep on finding the wrong things in order to rationalise the change. So what will happen to you during the process?

You will be filled up with the ‘wrong’ things.

How you can create anything out of the ‘wrong things’? The piece of paper in front of you will be filled up with a list of ‘not to do’. Every single square inches of that paper will filled up with those lists. So how can you draw a new thing on that piece of paper? There is no space left.

Think differently means you have lesser power to something that is larger than you. And you are obligated to challenge that larger thing and conquer. Well, it will work well for a while.  But once you are greater than those big thing you tried to challenge by being different, then what’s next. You are already there and no one to fight with. If you base your creativity on thinking differently. Now, who you want to be different from. ‘Think different’ is not a strategic for people who are already good.

Creative thinking is about forwarding possibilities. You show them what is possible and no reason why. Once you give them the reason, there is no freedom of choice. And thus, they are not free. Once they are not free, there will be no thinking forward.  And because of that, they will not appreciate you for the new thing you offer. But you have to always based you thought on something: now. You have to base you thought on present. Because that is all creative thinking is all about. Present and Possibilities.

You can always find  a reason not to do it. It is much easier to tell anyone not to do new things. Why? because reason always created out of what already happened. Reason always a rational to the notion of the past. So, when you make a decision to any creative works by using rational judgement, it will never work. You have already killed the possibility for the new possibilities. You can never make a decision out of something you don’t understand or you can’t refer it to your past. And that will make your decision so limited .

The only way to make the judgement on creatives thinking is you freedom of choice over it.  You choose chocolate because you chose chocolate, not because you like it.

…

(Still writing)

Things without love is not always necessarily interesting.

Take a restaurant, for example. A meal with a family or a children would depend more to a purpose of the food, rather than how good the restaurant were designed. But once such a demand for good design is required, the place will be more than a food purpose. It will be an experience: A place to meet with other people, possibly a date. One would normally need the extension of one’s body to embrace the sexuality target, in respect to the point of intimate relationship. A drive to naturally reproduction. A successful design is, thus, need to represent the customers in characteristic to become the extension to their body, with a purpose to mate. The more understanding of the designer to such sexuality drive force, then the more successful the design could ever become, commercially.
Other type of project could base itself on other type of force. But for those that required a commercial kind of energy, an ability of the project to arouse sexual relationship has always been the key.
And the hidden structure behind sexuality is all about proportion.
Any sexual subject always constructed out of the notion of proportion. An appeal of a woman in sexuality will be first judged by her proportion. The body or the face with certain proportion always called sexy. So the right proportion can trigger the sexual force.  When it come to a design work, those that were brought out with certain proportion that related to a local or observer proportion context will be called sexy. And it will eventually become a commercial success.
It is quite provocative to accept that all commercial value of design objects has to rely on how much it will turn you on in your subconscious. But, it will also be unfortunate not to accept the certain chance of its potential and possibility. Once the designer can master this knowledge in practice, the impact to his or her designer might be delivered on a different engine.

“…แผนที่ทีพระองค์ใช้คือมาตราส่วน 1:50,000 สำนักงานของท่านคือห้องกว้างๆ ไม่มีเก้าอี้ มีพื้นแล้วท่านก้มอยู่กับพื้น แล้วเอากาวติดแผนที่เข้าด้วยกัน แล้วหัวกระดาษต่างๆ ท่านก็ค่อยๆตัดแล้วเรียงแปะเป็นหัวแผนที่เข้าด้วยกันใหม่ เพื่อจะได้ทราบว่าแผนที่ระวางไหนบ้าง … การปะแผนที่ท่านก็ทำอย่างพิถีพิถัน และถือว่าเป็นงานที่ใครจะมาแตะต้องช่วยเหลือไม่ได้ทีเดียว…”

สาเหตุที่ทรงโปรดทำทุกสิ่งด้วยพระองค์เองนั้น “…ท่านบอกว่าคนเป็นช่าง ช่างหมายถึงงานทำด้วยมือทั้งหลายแหล่ ซึ่งการจะทำอะไรด้วยมือได้ ไม่ใช่หมายความว่ามือทำเอง มันมาจากสมอง สมองสั่งให้มือทำจึงทำได้ งานช่างคืองานที่ผนวกกันระหว่างสมองกับมือ เพราะฉะนั้นต้องทำเอง ลูบคลำมันไปแล้ว มันจะได้จากมือที่ลูบคลำ จากตาที่ดู ย้อนกลับมาที่สมอง ทำให้คิดอะไรขึ้นมาได้…”

ที่มา: คลังปัญญาไทยและกรมชลประทาน

My last night lecture dinner by Masaru Emoto could be another of world conspiracy hoax.

The idea of water crystallization that change it shape according to the music or thought? The shape that change in response to the text surrounded it or the object in the water? That might sound crazy indeed.  More like a new cult propaganda. And you should not believe in that completely.

But the idea is what that crucial most. The theory itself can connecting dot to the other curtain theories and religious belief.  It will surely explain how our memory does work or it might explain the connection of one thought to others’ thought and how it could possibly effect one another. It could possibly explain the mystery of telepathic capacity.  Or even how every lives on earth interconnected through one solid materiality platform.

I like what my friend would use the theory to explain the idea of the monk create the merit water. Praying tone could be a certain known frequency that arrange the crystalline structure of the water in a special way that similar to those water from the natural source.  The type that have capacity to heal. Emoto’s experiments create a grounding of reference that the water change its structure from location, music and emotion. But did not yet proof the effect of that different effect to our body.

But listen to the way he presented the idea alone could be a satisfactory poetic. And the idea is still floating in the air for the further thought.  That would be more than enough in this cruel world. Let alone the aspect of reality.

Alila Luang Prabang Laos

Sleeper : Hotel Design , Development & Architecture/ www.sleepermagazine.com /Issue 35 March / April 2011/ HOTEL REVIEW
Words: Sophie Davies Photography: Courtesy of Alila Hotels & Resorts

It may come as a shock that small and sleepy Luang Prabang, idling by the mountain-fringed Mekong River, boasts more inspiring boutique hotels than many a world city. The once isolated former royal capital of Laos blends Buddhist history with French colonial charm, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Currently turning heads is Alila Luang Prabang, launched in October 2010, a seductive all-suite sanctuary that marries historic buildings and contemporary additions with understated Lao style.

Developed by Thai firm KS Resort & Spa, the hotel is managed by Alila Hotels & Resorts, dynamic trendsetters behind some of Asia’s most exciting boutique hotels from Bali to Bangalore. Alila’s name means ‘surprise’, and surprise it does on this project, driven by Thai talent Duangrit Bunnag, with support from locally-based French-Canadian architect Pascal Trahan. Founder of design firm Duangrit Bunnag Architect Limited. (DBALP), Duangrit previously collaborated with the group on Hua Hin hideaway Alila Cha-Am in Thailand, which combined linear austerity with seaside serenity.

Converted from a derelict governor’s mansion built around 1910, Alila Luang Prabang has also served time as a detention centre and traces of its prison past remain from imposing walls to dramatic watchtowers. “You’ll see steel bars on the reception and boutique windows, but not in bedrooms, and we turned the two watchtowers into a special private dining experience,” explains Duangrit. “We wanted guests to learn about the hotel’s history, but also enjoy it as something new.

” Set in the quiet Ban Mano residential quarter yet near the heart of the old town, Alila Luang Prabang hides its charms behind high, white compound walls. Once through the impressive original gateway, the hotel’s elegant, dean-lined, tiled-roof suites are arranged around a large central courtyard, with an open-air swimming pool and reflection pool. A landscaped garden, conserved trees, lounging areas and a sandy firepit dot the public space.

At the far end, informal, low-lit lounge bar-come-library Sabai beckons. Beyond, in a smaller upper courtyard, Kaipen restaurant perches above open-air cooking school Katoke opposite Spa Alila. Built new from the ground up, it’s a faithful replica of a Lao village, with three two-storey traditional wooden houses on stilts. Inspired by its Luang Prabang location, “it brings the context of the city into the hotel,” says Duangrit.

Although his brief was fairly open, “the main challenge was working within strict conservation guidelinesท in a city which must be preserved,” recalls Duangrit. “But at the same time, we had to create a hotel that people want to experience. It needed to be

aesthetically coherent but also to stand out.” The team spent a year designing the hotel, over six months getting planning permission, and then a year and a half building it. Indepth studies of Lao architecture were a key jumping-off point; “not to copy it, but to really articulate a new vocabulary that could marry the existing former colonial structures on site with coherent new spaces.”

It’s almost impossible to spot the difference between the seven renovated original buildings, and the eight seamless new structures, built to blend in. “As per UNESCO regulations, the buildings have been restored to their original glory,” explains General Manager Karin van Zyl, “so the hotel harmonises with its surroundings while also standing out as a beautiful new creation.”

The 23 spacious suites are soothing, with lofty ceilings, accentuated by fulllength curtains, shuttered windows and whirring fans. Beds are swathed in dreamy white netting (modelled on a royal bed), trad Lao dark-wood furniture is given a contemporary edge and the muted natural palette is sophisticated (think pale walls and grey concrete tiles). The only hit of colour comes care of vibrant textile ‘do not disturb’ door-hangings, hand-made by hill tribes, and signature striped fabric headboard wallcoverings, a modern mix of cream, red, deep blue and rust-brown. “We took the average pigment from hundreds of photos of the city to create the fabric’s key tones,” says Duangrit. “Rather than just use images or old pictures, we wanted to create the same effect in a more abstract, artistic way.”

The result is a subtle yet seductive sense of place. “You know you are in Luang Prabang, and feel the spirit of the city, but there’s a clean-lined purity too. We tried to capture the simplicity of the way Lao people live. The spaces aren’t ornamental and ethnic, but nor are they ultra-modern either.

” Bathrooms up the luxe factor, with deep, sinuous white baths, rain showers and double basins, with some floor-set tubs spilling into sheltered areas outside. All rooms offer private courtyards and the four stand-out corner Pool Suites feature private lap pools. Two Pool Suites also sport their own watchtowers, offering romantic views of distant mountains, the perfect spot for cocktails or dinner a deux. The two top-category Governor’s Suites boast larger living rooms and fireplaces.

Tech comforts, such as free WiFi, abound, but it’s the sensual eastern touches that up the pampering ante, from a delicate white ceramic cup of herbal tea to a white flower left on the bed at turndown.

On the food front, Kaipen, named after an edible river weed, serves seasonal, local Lao and international cuisine in a sleek wood-lined space. It’s helmed by French executive chef Sebastian Rubis, who also runs the kitchen at more classic sister hotel 3 Nagas by Alila nearby, which has earned plaudits from The New York Times for its in-house restaurant.

Just as rooms embrace the outdoors, guests can too, with a range of activities available though the hotel’s Leisure Concierge, connecting them with the community.

Cooking school adventures take in produce street markets, or you can bike through local villages, dye your own silk scarf or tour the peninsula’s 30-odd temples. Trips to see the saffron-robed monks requesting alms at dawn or to the local night market are also just a bike ride away.

Free push bikes are just one of the hotel’s eco-friendly features, as are cars for airport transfers. Along with energy-efficient airconditioning, Duangrit relied on locallymade materials often produced on site, with much of the building work constructed by hand using low-tech green tools. With its pared down trad-modern style, Alila Luang Prabang isn’t the only directional bolthole in this intriguing town – boutique retreat Amantaka, set in a former French colonial hospital, enjoys a similar grand courtyard setting, and style-savvy Satri House teams a regal residence with chic Lao accessories. For Duangrit Bunnag, though, this project marks a departure from his previous contemporary hotel outings, where more relentless modernism ruled. “In this hotel we tried to explore another topology of how to be modern and that was very exciting.” .

EXPRESSCHECKOUT

Alila luang Prabang Unti 4, Ban Mano, Old Prison Road, luang Prabang, 0600 lao PD.R Tel: +856 71 260777
www.alilahotels.com/luangprabang
Developer / Owner: KS Resort & Spa
Operator: Alila Hotels & Resorts
Architect: Duangrit Bunnag Architect Ltd
Local Architect: Pascal Trahan
Landscape Architect: Thiti Tritrakarn
Interior Design: Marisa Noeypatimanond

090 MARCH / APRIL 2011 WWW.SlEEPERMAGAZINE.COM

การอ่านนี่ก็ถือว่าเป็นการทำอย่างหนึ่งนะครับ  มีคนเขาบอกว่า วิธีของความคิดนั้นเกิดขึ้นตอนแรกก็มักจะมาจากตอนใส่ข้อมูลเข้าไป  เป็นการสร้างประสบการณ์ให้กับสมอง แต่ในการจะสร้างอะไรออกมาจากสมอง สุดท้ายก็ต้องผ่านสองมืออยู่ดี

ผมมักจะแนะนำให้สถาปนิกและน้กออกแบบที่ทำงานกับผมให้ความสำคัญกับ “สองมือ” ที่ว่านี่ ภาษายากๆเราเรียกว่า Design Instrumental Technique หรือเครื่องมือที่เปลี่ยนความคิดออกมาเป็นสื่อที่จับต้องได้ นักเขียนอาจจะใช้ตัวหนังสือ นักดนตรีใช้ตัวโน๊ตและเสียงเพลง สถาปนิกอาจจะใช้แบบและหุ่นจำลอง แต่ลองนึกไปแล้ว บรรดานักสร้างสรรค์ทั้งหสายล้วนก็มีเครื่องมือที่ว่านี่กันทุกคนแต่อาจจะมีหน้าตาแตกต่างกันไป ดังนั้นถ้าใครคิดจะเริ่มสร้างสรรค์อะไรกัน ก็คงจำเป็นไม่น้อยที่ต้องหาเครื่องมือของคุณให้เจอเสียก่อน

สมอง จะได้มีสองมือโดยไว

บทความเขียนให้กับ www.creativethailand.org

14.10.2009

http://www.creativethailand.org/th/articles/article_detail.php?id=15

เรื่องแรกคือ กรุงเทพฯ มีโครงสร้างที่ไร้ระเบียบ มีความหลากหลายแต่ท่ามกลางความหลากหลายนั้น  ทุกอย่างสามารถผสมผสานกลมกลืนกันได้เป็นอย่างดี  ความหลากหลายและไร้ระเบียบนั้นเป็นโครงสร้างที่เหมาะสม  ที่จะเอื้อให้เกิดความเป็นไปได้ที่สิ่งต่าง ๆ จะมีการกระโดดข้ามผสมผสานกัน เหตุการณ์กิจกรรมต่าง ๆ ที่มีการปะปนหรือปลูกถ่าย(Grafting) ข้ามสายพันธุ์กันนั้น  เป็นเหตุอันดีที่จะก่อให้เกิดสิ่งใหม่ ๆ ในเชิงสร้างสรรค์ ได้อย่างไม่รู้จบ  ไม่ใช่แต่เพียงการกำหนดพื้นที่ใช้สอยที่ปะปนกันโดยธรรมชาติเท่านั้น แต่การปะปนนั้นย่อมเชื่อมต่อไปถึงคนที่อยู่ในเมืองด้วย  เมืองนั้นสร้างสรรค์เองไม่ได้นะครับ  แต่โครงสร้างของเมืองที่เหมาะสมและเอื้อให้คนปะปนกัน ย่อมทำให้เกิดโอกาสที่คนในเมืองเหล่านั้นจะเกิดความคิดสร้างสรรค์ใหม่ๆ ได้อย่างมหาศาล

เรื่องที่สองคือ จำนวนประชากรอันมหาศาลของกรุงเทพฯ  ที่ผมเชื่อว่าในความเป็นจริงแล้วเข้าออกรวมกันน่าจะประมาณ 10ล้านคน ความหนาแน่นของคนย่อมนำพามาซึ่งความหลากหลาย (Diversity) และความหลากหลายนี่เองที่นำพาอื่น ๆ ที่เหลือทั้งหมดให้เกิดขึ้นรวมทั้งความคิดสร้างสรรค์ ระบบนิเวศน์และธรรมชาติดำรงอยู่ได้เพราะความหลากหลาย  หากระบบเหล่านั้นถือกำเนิดใหม่และก่อวิวัฒนการตลอดเวลาเมืองที่อุดมไปด้วยความหลากหลายก็ย่อมเกิดวิวัฒนาการสร้างสรรค์ได้ตลอดเวลาเช่นกัน

บทความเขียนให้กับ www.creativethailand.org

10.11.2009

http://www.creativethailand.org/th/articles/article_detail.php?id=16

ภาษาไทย เป็นภาษาที่คล่องตัวในการใช้ที่สุดภาษาหนึ่งในโลก สามารถใช้พยัญชนะ วรรณยุกต์ ออกเป็นเสียงได้ทุกภาษาในโลกได้อย่างใกล้เคียง มีไวยกรณ์ที่เคร่งครัดแต่ก็มีศัพท์แสลงที่เยอะที่สุด ภาษาวัยรุ่นเกิดขึ้นใหม่ทุกวัน ไม่ตาย แต่ก็สามารถร้อยเรียงเป็นบทกวีได้อย่างมีสุนทรียภาพ  มีความละเอียดอ่อนไหวงดงาม แต่ก็สนุกสนานได้ไม่แพ้กัน ผมมักจะคิดเอาเองบ่อยๆ ว่า ภาษาไทยนี่เองที่เป็นเหตุให้คนไทยเป็นคนอารมณ์ดี มองโลกในแง่ดี  มีจิตใจงดงาม และมีความคิดสร้างสรรค์อยู่ตลอดเวลา  ความคล่องตัวของภาษาทำให้เกิดความคล่องตัวของความคิด และการก้าวข้ามของความคิด (transpose) เกิดขึ้นได้ง่ายและว่องไว  อันนี้ก็เป็นเหตุให้เกิดความคิดสร้างสรรค์ได้รวดเร็วเหมือนกัน

สมองของมนุษย์เกิดมาคิดมากกว่าหนึ่งเรื่องในเวลาเดียวกัน เหมือนเวลาเห็นผู้หญิงเดินมาแล้วบอกว่าสวย แล้วบอกไม่ได้ว่าสวยเพราะอะไร นี่ก็เป็นตัวอย่างการทำงานของสมอง ที่คิดมากกว่าหนึ่งในเวลาเดียว  บางครั้งรูปแบบของความคิดที่เป็นระบบ (pattern) นี้ก็เกิดข้ามไปมา คิดถึงเรื่องศิลปะแล้วก็ข้ามไปวิทยาศาสตร์ในเวลาเดียวกัน ก็อาจเกิดเป็นงานออกแบบขึ้นมาได้ เป็นต้น

ผมสังเกตุว่าศิลปะในแขนงต่างๆ ก็มีบ้างที่นำเอาการข้ามที่ว่ามาใช้ ภาพยนต์ ดนตรี ศิลปะสื่อผสมการแสดงต่างๆ ก็มีการก้าวข้ามที่ว่าเพื่อให้เกิดสิ่งใหม่ๆ อยู่เนืองๆ ก็อาจจะเป็นส่วนหนึ่งที่ทำให้เกิดความคิดสร้างสรรค์ได้ และก็โชคดีที่ความเป็นไทยแต่โบราณกาลก็เริ่มจากการก้าวข้ามไปมาจนเป็นวัฒนธรรมมไทย มีขอม มีจีน  แถมตอนท้ายมีฝรั่งเข้ามาปน วัฒนธรรมจึงทันสมัย สร้างสรรค์ และสวยงามอย่างที่เห็น

ถ้าเราเข้าใจความเป็นไทยอย่างที่เป็น  ประเทศไทยของเราก็น่าจะถูกปกคลุมด้วยความคิดใหม่ๆ โดยถ้วนหน้ากันอยู่เสมอ

บทความเขียนให้กับ www.creativethailand.org

09.12.2009

http://www.creativethailand.org/th/articles/article_detail.php?id=18