Khao Phra Tamnak House: a flexible diagram for a hillside

SPACE | STORY | STUDIO’s 2,000 m² Khao Phra Tamnak House, dated 2025, starts with a design diagram rather than a settled building form.

The studio’s project description places the house on the gentle hillside of Khao Phra Tamnak. Lead architect Pipol Likanapaisal leads the team, and Pongthawat Panthong provided the project photographs.

The architects describe the scheme as “a flexible design diagram rather than a predetermined architectural form.” That is a statement about method, not a mechanically adaptable building. Their account puts the site conditions and the lives to be accommodated ahead of a fixed architectural image.

How do the site conditions shape the brief?

SPACE | STORY | STUDIO identifies four elements: a gradual change in land level, the family’s need for generous and usable flat spaces, the principles of Feng Shui, and the presence of neighboring homes.

The studio states: “These factors are not treated as separate constraints.” They enter a common framework that can be tested, adjusted and extended. For designers, that framework works like a matrix: the change in level, the demand for usable flat areas and the neighboring houses become tests for the same proposal.

The published project text gives no resulting floor plan, levels or extent of flat spaces. It also does not identify which Feng Shui principles informed the design or how neighboring homes affected the plan. The account stops there.

What does flexibility change in practice?

The architects describe a framework that can be tested, adjusted and extended before the final architectural form. That language concerns the design process. It does not establish a planned future extension, movable wall or demountable structure.

For practitioners, the move is in the order of decisions. The studio puts topography and family requirements into the form-making process, rather than treating the house as a fixed image and the brief as a later adjustment. Flat space becomes a stated performance requirement, tested against the gradual change in level. Feng Shui and neighboring homes enter the same framework as the land and the family’s daily needs.

That approach also sets a limit on claims for the project. The published account specifies no room schedule, material palette, structural system or interior sequence. It offers the reasoning behind the design, not a technical breakdown of construction.

What should the project record clarify next?

The strongest material in the published information is the four-part framework. The next step for a fuller record is equally specific: document how the team tested and adjusted it, and how the resulting form became the built house.

For architects working on large homes on sloping sites, Khao Phra Tamnak House offers a sequence worth retaining. Address topography, family requirements, Feng Shui principles and neighboring homes together before fixing the form. The 2,000 m² figure establishes the project’s scale. The framework establishes its priorities.