Site preparation for an exciting new project

After a long period of design, development and refinement, we are now set to begin construction of this spectacular luxury home and guesthouse in Sangkhom.  Over the past week we have been preparing the site by clearing the land, building a temporary camp and materials store, and also ensuring good road access to the site.   The main building structure is to be situated on top of the 3 meter high raised section of land you can see in the pictures below.  The actual structure will sit on top of a large number of piles, driven 15m into the ground below.  You can see in the pictures below that we have marked the position of all of the piles.  Piling is scheduled to begin on 16th August but in the mean time we have to prepare a temporary earthwork ramp up to the raised area of land to give access to the large piling crane that will be used.   It will take approximately 2 weeks to add in all of the piles, though piling work will stop for 19th August when the official Buddhist ceremony will be held at which time the first two columns of the house will be erected.

"Amoon on the Mekong" - Luxury guest house design

I have not blogged about this project before, however it is one that we have been working on for over a year, now.  I enjoy all of our design and construction projects, but this one has been particularly thrilling to have been a part of so far.  "Amoon on the Mekong" will be a luxury guest house in an idyllic setting amongst 13 Rai (5 Acres) of mature trees on the banks of the Mekong River, backed by the rolling hills of Sangkhom and enjoying wonderful views across the river to Laos.

When we were first approached, the design project was well underway.  Our client had already been working with an architect in Australia for a number of years developing an architectural concept.  This concept has remained largely unchanged, so I can not take credit for all of the architectural design, however we have worked with the client to make tweaks and alterations to achieve a final design.  We also carried out all of the necessary structural analysis, electrical and plumbing engineering work to produce all of the necessary construction drawings and documentation.

We are still working with the client to look at additional potential refinements to the final design.  The construction phase of the project is due for completion before December 2012.