“Nimmana Haeminda” is a community in which a small guest house of “Baan Sayla” is located. The community used to combine distinct characters of local residents of merchants, teachers, and a mix of creatives and artists through generations.
The district became nationwide with its unique spiritual identity which attract people as a dominant tourist spot in Chiang Mai which eventually consume locals with capitalism. The resident begins to market their property. and after a process of shifting holder through time the land end up in a business run by a foreign investor with subjective thinking.
The installation of foreign business is what people found instead of a traditional way of life and “Baan Sayla” take the consequence. The wide spread of Covid-19 is the breaking point of Nimman which relies on tourists. The incident started to remind and generate a new approach for Baan Sayla to the owner.
Baan Sayla's initial design objective is to create sustain-business in the long term and embrace the traditional spirit by reconstructing space,
in the hope to bring back space quality that locals can relate to. We begin with the redefinition of “Baan Sayla” which could interpret as a beauty, a tree, and most importantly “The mountain”.
The dominant material we use is red brick which surrounds and constructs Baan Sayla interior space resulting in a situated mountain character on a community scale. The authentic nonrigidity pattern of brick is an outcome of bricks procured from a kilt in Lampang, Chaingmai, and Lampoon combined together, a replica way in the construction of the Chaingmai fortress. The actual experience of mountains is implemented in a staircase opening which is facing the mountain of Doi Suthep.
In this 3-story hotel,
we embrace a traditional living atmosphere with the design of a public court that attracts street commuters. despite having solid quality, we designed a brick facade to flow and curve into the internal court and connect the sequence from the public sidewalk to the open space inside. On the contrary, the curve-in quality of brick facade wrap creates privacy, opening, and ventilation to the 2nd and 3rd floors.
The main staircase is designed adjacent to the center court to earn the benefit of the massive south opening visually linked to Doi Suthep. The open space is enlarged As we journey on the stair, experience the clarity of Doi Suthep scenery increasing along the journey. Enhance the experience as if we actually trailing onto the mountain.
The Sayla is the reconstitution project in the hope to bring back the local spirit that suppresses with capitalism of an increasing earn of non-sustain tourism and the property takeover of a foreign investor. Sayla is the revival of traditional community spirit and the symbol of a long-lasting mountain that conveys Nimman traditional living to the next generation.
