Boonserm Premthada's Thai Office Built From a Rice Barn and a School

Boonserm Premthada has built a 440.7-square-meter office in Khao Lak, Phang Nga, almost entirely from timber salvaged from two demolition-bound buildings: an old rice cooperative in Phatthalung and a wooden school in Phang Nga. The project, Traces by the Sea, serves as the office for Matalay and was designed by Premthada's Bangkok Project Studio.

The wood arrived with its history attached. Paint layers, notches, old joints and worn surfaces all made the trip, and Premthada left them where they were. Differences in dimension and remnant paint guided how each piece found its position, with the studio making only the changes strictly needed to reuse the timber. The logic is simple: the material dictates the design, not the reverse.

Carpenters assembled everything by hand on site, examining each piece before adapting connections to fit its existing features. Old joints sit visibly alongside new ones, recording both who worked the wood before and who gave it its second job.

How does the cluster handle a hot coastal climate?

The office comprises four timber buildings connected by decks and walkways, a layout borrowed from traditional Thai house clusters. The gaps between buildings let breezes pass through and keep views of the sea open. Rows of columns raise the floors above the sand, creating shaded undercrofts below — a cooling strategy Thai builders have used for centuries, here adapted to a contemporary workplace.

The decks and walkways push people outdoors as they move between workspaces, putting trees, sea breeze and shifting light into the daily commute between meetings. The coastal setting becomes part of the job description.

Where do the sunscreens come from?

From silkworms, indirectly. Large woven bamboo trays from northeastern Thailand, traditionally used for sericulture, now serve as sunscreens. The trays keep their original shapes and woven patterns, and sunlight filtering through the weave casts patterns of light and shadow across the interiors. They remain recognizable as farm tools, repurposed rather than redesigned.

Premthada first explored these material ideas in artwork shown at Triennale Milano; Traces by the Sea translates them into a building that must answer to salt air, sun and daily use.

Can the buildings move again?

Yes, and that's the point. The timber buildings are designed for dismantling and reassembly elsewhere. The wood has already lived twice — rice cooperative and school, now seaside office — and the project leaves the door open for a third act.

The wider Matalay development extends the material experiments. A public toilet building uses bricks made from elephant dung: a long, low structure with brick walls, timber doorways, and openings that admit light and air while keeping trees visible above the roofline. Visitors arriving at Matalay first pass Goya Tower, built with the same dung bricks, before reaching the timber buildings by the sea.

Whether the material is a painted beam or a byproduct of an elephant, the approach holds: find value in what others overlook, change as little as possible, and let the next move — reuse, relocation, reassembly — stay on the table.

Project info

• Name: Traces by the Sea
• Client: Matalay
• Location: Khao Lak, Phang Nga, Thailand
• Architect: Boonserm Premthada
• Design team: Bangkok Project Studio
• Gross floor area: 440.7 square meters
• Photographer: Spaceshift Studio