Unique 5 Bedroom home in Vientiane, Laos

We have just completed the architectural design and structural engineering of a unique home to be built in Vientiane, Laos.  The client gave us a very clear vision of the home they wanted, even providing us with a virtual 3D model.  We then took this initial concept and refined it, suggesting aesthetic and structural design changes to achieve the final design shown below.

The home is around 450 square metres in area and has five bedrooms and 6 bathrooms.  The large 6m x 12m  lounge/dining will feature a gravity defying wooden tread cantilever staircase protruding from the wall.  This leads to the master bedroom suite which occupies the entire second floor and includes walk in closet, large bathroom with spa bath, study and an extensive balcony.  Another unique feature of this house is the  large kitchen which is completely open to the garden on two sides blurring the boundary between the outside and inside. The kitchen leads onto a large covered terrace that runs the length of the home.  This terrace will look out onto a large swimming pool.







Floor going in, walls going up

We have finished casting of all of the columns and beams.  The floor slab has now been poured.  In this case we used pre-cast concrete slabs over which was laid a steel mesh.  A layer of concrete was then poured over the tope of this.  This method is much quicker than adding in supports and shuttering and then pouring one thick concrete slab.  Most of the walls have also now been built.  Due to budget constraints with this project, we are using standard blocks, rather than the thermally insulating blocks that we have used on other projects.





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.