Project Name: Terrarium House

Location: Ladprao, Bangkok, Thailand

Design Team: Unknown Surface Studio

Total Floor Area: 450 m²

Completion: 2025

Photography: Rungkit Charoenwat

Design Features: Terrarium House, designed by Unknown Surface Studio, stands as a masterful expression of spatial constraint transformation and inward-looking design strategy nestled within a unique ladle-shaped plot in Bangkok's Ladprao district. This 450-square-meter private residence exemplifies the perfect balance between distinctive sequential arrival experience and central courtyard terrarium configuration, redefining nature integration and spatial tranquility within high-density urban environments.

The project's most compelling design achievement lies in its intelligent site response strategy. The project confronted two core challenges: accessibility limitations arising from a narrow three-meter access road, and privacy and natural light distribution issues resulting from neighbors on all four sides. Unknown Surface Studio's design response transformed the spatial constraints into the greatest asset, creating a completely inward-focused self-contained world. This strategic inversion not only optimized site utilization but also closely linked physical restrictions with spiritual needs, functional layout, and emotional experience.

The architectural narrative unfolds through sophisticated arrival sequence, demonstrating remarkable spatial choreography. The long narrow entrance passage was transformed into a transitional tunnel, with natural stone walls on both sides and stretching wooden ceiling suppressing urban noise, building anticipation, creating a moment of calm before entering the inner sanctuary. The central courtyard serves as the emotional core of the residence, preserving the site's original trees, with architecture wrapping around nature like a glass vitrine, forming a living terrarium. This verdant core functions as a passive light source, with sunlight filtering through layers of foliage, casting ever-changing shadows across wooden interiors, altering the house's atmosphere with every passing hour as the sun moves.

The project's defining architectural element is the innovative column-free structural system, demonstrating remarkable engineering design intelligence. Despite being enclosed by surrounding buildings, the interior space presents a boundless sensation. The double-height living area and curved glass walls dissolve corners, creating seamless visual flow between ground floor and upper level. The second floor is designed as a private penthouse space, housing art collection and master bedroom, maintaining continuous dialogue with the internal garden. Steel and Takian wood frames bear the roof weight, exposing the raw beauty of materials, achieving structural honesty in column-free space.

The interior treatment demonstrates the refinement of exceptional craftsmanship. As the residence of a master contractor, this house is a manifesto of craftsmanship. Seven distinct wood species were meticulously selected and chemically bleached to achieve a singular harmonious hue reminiscent of Hinoki cypress. This design approach fully leverages the unique characteristics of materials, creating tonally harmonious living environments. The differentiated treatment of material selection serves not only as an aesthetic pursuit strategy but becomes an important element of spatial narrative, allowing the entire residence to present clearly layered textural and tactile dialogue.

Terrarium House's defining feature is its contemporary interpretation of urban sanctuary and innovative spatial practice. The design achieves delicate balance between urban chaos and interior tranquility by having architecture and nature embrace rather than merely coexist. The glass vitrine configuration serves not only as a functional solution but becomes a core element of spatial experience, transforming physical limitations into design opportunities. The project proves that thoughtful design can create timeless oases that feel worlds away from the city within dense urban environments through strategic site utilization and innovative structural application, while maximizing the penetration of natural light and green landscapes.

Design Team: Unknown Surface Studio, established in 2020 by Cievanard Nattabowonphal, Piyanat Songkhroh, and Nonglak Boonsaeng, is a Bangkok-based practice dedicated to creating architecturally futuristic urban spaces, organic form architecture, and innovative projects that balance nature-inspired design with built surfaces. The three founding partners, operating under the philosophy "We build you a specialty surface," bring distinguished educational backgrounds and practical experience in challenging conventional forms and embracing new technologies and ideas.

Prior to founding their own practice, the three founders honed their expertise through years of architectural practice, developing a design philosophy rooted in futurism, organicism, and technological advancement that embodies a contemporary interpretation of nature's affinity. The firm's leadership team specializes in comprehensive architectural services including architectural design, urban design, interior design, and innovative spatial development, continuously exploring relevant roles for architecture by challenging the status quo.

The practice has garnered significant recognition within the international architectural community, earning the Prix Versailles 2025 award for Curvy Dining in The World's Most Beautiful Restaurants category, the 2024 Golden Pin Design Award Mark Winner and Best Design Finalist for Uncloud Coffee by Taiwan Design Research Institute, and the Room x Living ASEAN Selected Awards 2024 Award of Attractive Space in Cafe category in the same year. Multiple firm projects have received ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards nominations, including Uncloud Coffee in 2025 and Canvas House in 2024. The firm's work demonstrates consistent exploration of curve application, fluidity creation, and the integration of nature with architecture, establishing a distinctive voice in Southeast Asian contemporary architecture.

Unknown Surface Studio, as a full-service architectural practice, demonstrates proficiency across diverse typologies, encompassing residential architecture, commercial spaces, dining facilities, urban design planning, planning and design of various innovative renovation projects, landscape integration, and spatial product design. Through a diverse portfolio spanning from private residences to public facilities, the firm has established new paradigms in contemporary Southeast Asian architecture, demonstrating consistent commitment to creating genuinely humanized environments. For the studio, curves give a sense of fluidity and softness, countering the rigid lines commonly found in nature. The studio incorporates curves to soften sharp lines from landscape to architecture, evoking a sense of flow and movement, guiding occupants through space with gentle and organic transitions. Its award-winning projects confirm the firm's exceptional standing in contemporary Southeast Asian architectural practice. The studio's designs are firmly grounded and speak the language of context, yet display subtle and unexpected individuality. With its design philosophy, the studio strikes a balance between thrilling aesthetics and smart functionality to create unknown surfaces possible.