In pursuit of sustainability for a family-run boutique hotel situated on the main road across Khao Lak beach village, Studio Locomotive sidestepped from the subject about the distance to the beach but initiated the distinctive hospitality experience, founded on the hotelier family’s pride in their ethnic status and commitment to advocating their local culture of neighboring Takua Pa suburb, to define the highlight of Hotel Gahn. The retired Takua Pa town was once a prosperous home to Chinese miners from the tin rush during the 1680s - 1970s. Their immigration route and interethnic marriage with Malay Peninsula inhabitants had caused the unique transcultural hybridization inherited and matured through generations of their descendants — particularly called Baba Nyonya — who have been reflecting their combinative traditions from style of clothes, home-cooked recipes, local dialect, ceremonial activities, to architectural characteristics. The spatial experience of Hotel Gahn suggested in the space programming, choices of materials and household objects, material treatments, and adapted vernacular features reveals the evocative traces to the unfrequented district Takua Pa reintroducing the strive-to-make-presence historical prosperity and mixture, giving this town a fresh spin as a cultural tourism destination. On arrival, this five-story hotel is outstanding from the steel gateway, modified from the shophouses’ signature arched verandah called Ngo-Ka-Ki, to preserve the privacy on the ground floor from road activities. The extensive wood façade, covering pipelines running out of the building to optimize ceiling height, is stained in opaque black from engine oil wood treatment. The hotel reception, coffee bar, and restaurant share the ground floor furnished with eclectic Asian-inspired furniture. The central square table with antique-styled stools and bench offers a casual Asian-family communal setting. The family’s collectible display cabinets in full height along the side walls warmly narrate household stories. Ochre red and green colors, noticeable on local architectural ornaments, are applied on selected elements, including walls, pillar, and accented ceiling frames that disguise the pipe and wire tracks. The hardwood staircase leading to guestroom floors demonstrates local undemanding woodcraft details with concrete curtail steps. ‘Fa Lai’ (a vertical opening lath with a shutting batten panel on sliding track) allows wind flow to the corridor when opened and appears as part of the wooden facade when closed. Each guestroom features the use of traditional materials, local construction technicality, and daily household objects: terrazzo floor with brass strips, wooden wall with beading, vertical iron grille on closet door, bathroom door with wooden latch, Chinese canopy bed, and hand-painted ceramic basin. Hotel Gahn has benefited from the differentiated value proposition purposefully converted into suggestive spatial touchpoints — initiating a new approach on meaningful ‘culture-cation’ for anybody old or young and offering a sense of warm boutique intimacy, inclusivity, and connection to the community. The hotel has become outstanding, with its unique representation, as one of the few top accommodations of choice in Khao Lak, before the pandemic and significantly after-lockdown reopening in Thailand.
Hotel Gahn
Studio Locomotive
Bronze

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Alia el Tanani
Founder
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7
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8
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7.5

Giulia Maria Moschen Bracho
Trend Researcher | Futurist
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9
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6
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Elena Apiou
Head of design
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Vincent de Graaf
Co-founder
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Love the almost Flintstones like wo...
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Tom Edington
Creative Director
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Unexpected take on a lab space, whi...
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Valérie Boerma
Founder
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Very interesting to read how the de...
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Daisuke Nagatomo
Assistant Professor
at National Taiwan Normal University
The project addresses the question...
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6
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7.25

Wiebe Boonstra
Art Director / Co Founder
at DUM
6
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Cameron Fry
Creative Director
at Liqui Group
3
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4.25

T.K. Chu
The Founder and Principle Designer of T. K. Chu Design Group and TK Home
at T. K. Chu Design Group
4
6
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Heidi Smith
Partner
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A striking workspace design that do...
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Sanxia Zhou
Director
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7
8
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6
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William Lim
Managing Director
at CL3 Architects Limited
7
6
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Oliver Salway
Founder
at Softroom
An unexpected take on a computer sc...
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Designer
Client
Anusasananun Family
Floor area
1080 ㎡
Completion
2019
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