泰国华欣“哈瓦那公寓”丨Openbox Architects

Architect：Openbox Architects

Location：Huahin, Hua Hin District, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand; | ;

Project Year：2020

Category：Apartments

After being discovered by Christopher Columbus, Spain colonized Cuba from 1511until the beginning of the 20th Century, when they were able to gain independence from Fidel Castro and Che Guevara with the aid from the United States.With the support from the States, the influence completely dominated Cuba’s economic, social, and political systems.

Rich Cuban culture were established from the diversity of indigenous people, African slaves, and European immigrants.With these combinations, the culture was designed under the concept of “Eclectic Design”

Overall Masterplan

The project is located in the center of Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan province. Surrounded by the night markets and only 250 meters from the sea, we designed the Masterplan consists a group of condominiums in a C-shaped layout with the opening face towards the sea, surrounding a large swimming pool and the main lobby.

Upon entering the project, the first encounter is a pavilion decorated in Havana café style, which serves both as the sales gallery and the lobby of the project. The concept of the design begins with the "Eclectic Design" keyword that arises from a combination of European architectural elements, Cuban historical traces, and vibrancy of Cuba. Instead of using the European architectural elements, we decided to simplify the component while still possessing the principle of European architecture by substitute the cornice and arch colonnades with bending steel sheets. The steel sheet was inspired by the wrought iron that were used throughout Havana’s buildings. To elevate the concept even further, the use of rustic colors on the façade was intended to create a texture similarly to the historical scar on the buildings of Havana city. The large six meters tall wooden door with a small hidden door at the building entrance was also a direct link to the doors that can be found in the houses in Havana.

The inner walls are painted in brushed green color contrasting the rusted steel arch colonnades to help reflect the diversity of the Cubans.

Main Building (Condominium)

Residential buildings in the project consists of three low-rise buildings surrounding the courtyard and the Terrain Villa building in the middle of the courtyard connecting to the swimming pool.

The low-rise buildings were designed to have a gap in each part of the building to create cross ventilation and reduce the building's massive appearance. Furthermore, the mass of the building is twisted facing the sea to create an appearance as if there were more building mass in groups similar to Havana city.

In the back of The Terrain Villa building, the parking spaces were designed to reminisce Havana street’s atmosphere rather than a typical standard parking space.Moreover, a small court with large trees are placed at a corner of the Building B to help reduce the blind corner, create thermal comfort zone, and allow natural light to illuminate throughout the building.

The swimming pool in the project is divided into 2 levels are the larger area of the swimming pool (Ocean Havana Pool) on the ground floor is located right after walking through the lobby. The large pool can also be accessed from the ground floor units in Building A and the fitness room.The second area of the pool is located on the 2nd floor of Building C that can also be accessed from Building B and D through a bridge surrounded by various trees. Underneath the smaller pool is where the main swimming pool machine room is located. It can act as a buffer between the facilities area and the car park under Building C.

The overall façade design concept still continues to use the language of European architectural components. For instance, the first three floors of the Low-rise building are implemented with large arch colonnades. Moreover, the European cornice is used to divide up the façade in different shades of color similarly to the horizon line of Havana City.

In some units of building A and C, the balconies are angled facing the sea with the railing proportion similar to the wooden balconies on some of the houses in Havana.It also helped to visually dividing up the building’s mass as well.

The colors throughout the main building are a selection of six shades of beige colors. In addition to help relating to Cuban buildings, the brushed color texture and colorful tinted have been applied throughout the project such as the gaps, end of corridor, inside the colonnades, and fire exit stairs to capture the vibrancy of Havana City.

Moreover, there are also more direct correlations to the Havana architecture in the details of the project, such as the wrought iron used in balcony railings, CDU grills, and decorated window railings.

Overall, the “Eclectic design” concept has been implemented throughout the project to help demonstrate that Havana city vibrancy and atmosphere can be suitable as a “Vacation Home”

▼项目更多图片