Prakanong, Thailand
Located on the quiet Na Jomtien beach, between the fishermen’s village and the city of Pattaya, Mason’s architecture rests on a 15m-high granite hill inclining down to the sea, where Ang Sila, the local stonemasonry community is nearby.
Vasu Virajsilp, architect in charge of the Mason Chonburi villas project, and his team have created a hideaway pool-villa resort near the beach where nature is fully incorporated into the design of each villa creating a relaxing experience by the ocean.
This unique architectural design was short-listed for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The resort consists of 35-unique-pool-villas and its facilities, including a restaurant, spa, fitness, pool, and beachside bar.
C-shaped concrete villas are sculpted into “caves” to create the minimum impact to the existing hillside site, using the integration of natural stone and other materials.
The combination of material mastery and detail is also carved into concrete, terrazzo, wood, glass, in collaboration with the local artisans’ craftsmanship.
In descending the slope, the cave-like villas are carved on one-third of the 48,000 square-meter sites, maximizing the sea view, while keeping tranquility and privacy within.
Located near the sea, two rows of one-bedroom villas are entered from above, via an open-air staircase from the back, which arrives on the spacious sundeck terrace.
Light and shadow play with positive and negative space in a light-filled enclosure beneath the staircase.
Further inland, family two-bedroom villas with full height opening from the entrance, creating dramatic scenes by framing the seascapes.
Behind those are two rows of duplexes that guests enter via a landing between floors.
Furthest from the sea, the garden villa maintains privacy within an extra-large private pool, and spacious bathroom.
The expression of light is interlaced into its interior by a skylight and it is changing dramatically during the day.
The design accent also can be seen in decorative crafts such as sculptural vases and washbasins made from granite rocks by Ang Sila local sculptors.
Whereas the project owner and the architect would like to collaborate with the local community and the local artists to make Mason not only a retreat resort but a project that is made locally unique and is community-awareness in the place of nowhere else.
Project: Mason ChonBuri
Architects: Vaslab Architecture
Client: K Wave
Contractor: Dwell Furniture Co., Ltd.
Photographers: Spaceshift Studio Ketsiree Wongwan Wara Suttiwan
