Moonrise Farm - A Sustainable Farmhouse

Project type: Land development and concept design
Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Date:  2014-2015

This was the project I have co-worked with my family after my graduation. The goal was to figure out the best way to develope the land which belongs to my parents, in a way that they can easily maintain it and fulfill their lives after their retirement without laborious work. At the initial state, the land was very savage and destroyed by a heavy usage from pesticide farming, and prescribed burns after the harvest season. But because of its potential to be in a much better state, we planned to revive the lushness of the land and bring healthier farming method to revive the farm. Furthermore, the design should also enhance the beauty from the natural surrunding and make the most use of the local materials and craftmanship to create sustainability architecture, as well as to create more work in the community.

Mix - used area

Kitchen and dining area is a very flexible space. The variety of seats allow guests to sit together in a smaller group but still can participate bigger activities with a larger crowd, such as cooking or tea making. The kitchen is open and reachable in order to create a homemade atmosphere and to offer food and drink oriented activities, such as a cooking class

From whatever corners of the house, whatever activities are engaged, the inhabitants are made sure to get access to nature, natural light and enough ventilation.

Mountain View Cabins

Apart from the main building, there are other house styles that were build for guests for a better private experience and was made to be easy to take care. 

In this area locates guest houses with two different planning; two houses, each contains a bedroom with normal bathroom, and a house with one bedroom and a special bathroom with bath tub. These houses were designed with the idea of being able to live in a little cabin in the nature, while acquiring comfort and luxury simultaneously. The design was inspired by Lanna (northern Thailand) architectural style combining with a hint of countryside cabin atmosphere Local materials like bamboos from our farm and roof tiles from the neighbourhood are keys to create architectonic.

 Material Selection and Furniture

Bamboo
There are a lot of bamboo in our neighborhood, and I wanted to create an iconic architectural style in the farm. Constructing with bamboo can be very delicated, because of its characturistics. Advanced constructional method was also not an option for our local builders. As a result, I decided to use bamboo as the additional element, that carries a personality to the architecture.