Office frontage alterations / Signage

The owner of a travel agent in Nong Khai asked us to help them with a problem they were having with their office.  The problem was that the office was becoming unbearably hot as it had a glass curtain wall frontage and also large windows at the side.  Sun streamed in all through the day.  Adding blinds inside had not helped as although it blocked out the glare of the sun, it did not stop the office temperature increasing, cause by the sun heating up the air in the gap between the inside of the window and the blind.  Whilst they had air conditioning fitted that should have been the correct power for the size of the office, it did not account for the excessive heat that can build up in such a glass box!  The problem had become so bad that they had resorted to leaving the security shutters down for most of the time.  The problem with this was that passers by then thought that the office was not open!

My solution was to provide a physical barrier to protect the office from the sun.  First we applied a sheet of adhesive material to the window that allows you to see out of from the inside, but blocks much of the light coming in.  I also designed and printed some sections of this material to promote some of the world destinations that the travel agent offers packages to. I then designed a series of solid facia board constructed from a combination of wood, stainless steel and plastic that incorporated the company logo to be mounted outside the window as another physical barrier to the heat of the sun.  These facia boards are all removable from the frame to which they are mounted to allow for cleaning of the windows behind them.  The large white board actually has a hinged glass front in a stainless steel frame and can be opened up to allow posters to be displayed detailing the latest promotions on offer by the travel agent.  Everything that was installed fits between the window and the existing security shutters so that it is protected when the office is closed at night.

We completed all work with this small project a little over a week ago and are happy to report that it has solved the problem....  the office is now cool and airy, and passers by never miss the office because not only are the security shutters open all day, but the company also has a greatly increased street presence as a result of the new signage.

Here is the office as it was, the CAD concept that was presented, and the final result.









Construction begins...

We broke ground on our 2 bedroom house project in Fao Rai on 16th January.  On 18th Jan we poured the concrete footings. We then prepared the formwork for the first stage columns, which were poured on 22nd Jan.  Yesterday we began to prepare the wooden structure that will support the main beam formwork.  The beams are due to be poured on 27th January.









Two bedroom single storey home

I have just finished the design of a low cost two bedroom single storey home for a client near Fao Rai, Phon Phisai.

The home is entered via some steps leading up to a covered porch and  features a relatively large open plan living / dining room and kitchen area.  This leads on to a large covered deck at the rear.  There is also another covered area for an outside laundry just off from the kitchen area.

The master bedroom has a very large walk-in closet and an en-suite bathroom.  Unusually, at the clients request, the en-suite bathroom then leads on to a walled open-air shower room. There is then a guest bedroom with built in closet and a second bathroom.

We shall be starting construction of this home within the next week, with a scheduled completion date of around the end of May this year.  Check back here for updates on the progress of this build.







Another project complete...

We completed our second project in Thip Thani in december of last year and handed the keys over to a happy customer, just in time to move in for Christmas.

A client can have as much or as little involvement as they wish with the design of their home.  Some like to leave all of the decisions to the designer, whilst some have a very clear idea in their mind of the look they are trying to achieve.  With this property, it was a mixture of the two cases in that I was responsible for the exterior design, and the client made all of the interior styling choices around a layout that I had provided.   The project was carried out on a fixed price bases, with a set budget for things such as tiles, paint, granite  counter tops etc...  Our client then chose the interior finishes receiving a rebate if under budget and paying an excess if over the allowed budget.  This suited him as it meant he was able to chose exactly what he wanted and also allowed him to find his own savings on certain things and then use that to upgrade on other features.

We had originally bought the land for development and the contract we had with the client was for the land and for the design and construction of the home.  Garden landscaping was not something that was covered in this case as it was something that the client wanted to undertake, allowing himself time to live in the property and develop the garden over time to suit him.

Modern electronics showroom frontage design

We were recently asked to design the frontage for a new build electronic goods showroom which is soon to open in Vientiane, Laos.  The main structure of the building had already been erected and work was ongoing.  Whilst some exterior detailing in place, it was not to the owners taste. My brief was to provide a bold, modern and colourful frontage design to add to the existing structure.

Here is the structure of the building that I had to design around.



The design that I provided was largely inspired by the work of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, which seemed to fit perfectly with the clean lines, modern and colourful design that I had been asked to provide.  The large area of white space at the top of the building and above the ground floor is intended for signage.






Modern office renovation progress

With our proposal for the modern office renovation having been accepted, we are now well on the way to completion, but here is an update on the progress so far.

The first task was to strip away the facia boards to reveal the existing structure.




The redesign involved substantial changes to the structure of the building, so we had to strip back the frontage to its core column and beam structure.



We also had to add footings for the new columns that were to be incorporated in the new design.




The new design then began to take shape, building on the new foundations and tying into the original structure.






It was necessary to add safety covers to the high voltage power lines that ran parallel to the top floor of the building.