Villa Phrueksa Sawan | Photo: Rungkit Charoenwat A DESIGN STUDIO THAT EMPHASIZES THE PROBLEM SOLUTIONS AND WORKING PROCESS WITH KNOWLEDGE OF VISUAL ART ELEMENTS TO DELIVER PLEASURE TO CLIENTS
TEXT: AIIM ARCHITECTS ATELIER
PHOTO CREDIT AS NOTED
(For Thai, press here)
WHO
Both of us are architects. I (Krit Jiwanantaprawat) grew up in Krabi and Siin (Supansa Chareonsuk) is a native of Rayong. Our goal is to both live together as a couple and work together in our small studio called ‘aiim (aiim architects atelier.)’
WHAT
Our studio mainly works on exterior and interior design.
Villa Phrueksa Sawan | Photo: Rungkit Charoenwat
Villa Phrueksa Sawan | Photo: Rungkit Charoenwat
WHEN
Both of us used to work in Bangkok before we decided to move back to my hometown in Krabi around 2017. Initially, we worked at my parent’s home, which is located out of town. Then, after a while, our works became more widely known, so we decided to launch our own studio, ‘aiim’ (aiim architects atelier) in 2021.
WHERE
We relocated our studio to the center of Krabi town. This relocated studio is designed to be a home office, with spaces for both working and living that were constructed on a new plot of land.
WHY
Because this studio is where we both work and live, it is a place where we spend most of our time. As such, we want a space which accommodates these uses as efficiently as possible so that we can live and work comfortably and happily. If we can find joy and happiness when we work, then we can pass this happiness to others through our design.
How would you describe your work?
We feel as if each one of our works does not have their own specific or same style of design (laugh.) This might be because we do not want each of our pieces to be the same but prefer to make one distinct from the other, as different designs are made to serve different needs or purposes. So, we think our style of work is one of solving problems that come with each different design in that they serve their purpose. Also, apart from the utilities, our works also have both 2D and 3D visual art elements added to them for aesthetics. In other words, our designs are not only about the efficiency of the space but also encompass beauty.
Smiley Hours | Photo: Rungkit Charoenwat
What is your inspiration and guiding principle for each creation?
In regards to work, our inspiration would be having the opportunity to work on new projects or new demands for design while listening to the project owner discuss their needs, issues, and limitations. This allows us to engage in the brainstorming process with them and help them find and sort through ideas and find means to turn their ideas and needs into an actual design.
For our guiding principle, we always put emphasis on creating the best work possible. For this, we mainly put time and effort into the design development process in order to both ensure that the project owner clearly understands their needs and to draw a design plan with the best and most suitable utility for the those needs, which will result in building and space that is desirable and pleasurable to use.
Smiley Hours | Photo: Rungkit Charoenwat
Smiley Hours | Photo: Rungkit Charoenwat
What project are you most proud of?
This one is the most difficult question to answer, as we like almost every one of our projects. But if we must pick one that we are most proud of, we think that would be my own home (Aiim House) as it is the space that we design to serve our own living needs. Also, living in this house means that we get to see its different atmospheres that change with each time of the day. It could be said that this house is not finished yet, as we get to continue thinking about design plans, learn, and experiment a lot in this house. All this leads us to gain more understanding and knowledge about real construction processes that we could apply in the future and further developments for other designs.
Which stage of the design process do you like the most?
All of them actually. The process of accepting the project excites us, while the actual construction gives us satisfaction of seeing our design taking a real shape. But for the process that we like the most, that would be the preliminary design stage, since the first draft always made the project owner feel excited. It is also the process in which the project owner has the most participation, as our studio likes to draw up a variety of alternative designs in order to experiment and find the most fitting design together with them to achieve the most desired result.
If you could invite a ‘creative’ to coffee, who would you invite and why?
If we have a chance to have a coffee with a creative, we would love that creative person to be someone who is a deep thinker yet pleasurable to have a conversation with. That someone would be ‘Thawan Duchanee’ Although he has passed away, his appearance or voice on screen and radio had never failed to capture our attention. We once had a chance to attend a seminar by the Baan Artists, and one of the members was Mr.Thawan. It was our first and only encounter with him. He was very admirable, friendly, pleasurable to converse with and had a good sense of humor. That encounter indeed gave us some novel perspectives and left a lasting impression on us.
Aiim House | Photo: Supansa Chareonsuk