Casa de La Flora is a modern beachfront resort designed by VaSLab Architecture, located along a palm tree lined beach in Khao Lak, Phangnga, Thailand. The latest member of Design Hotel in Thailand, the resort was commissioned in 2008 by one of  Thailand’s leading businessmen Sompong Dowpiset. There are 36 cube-shaped villas aimed to serve as a new high profile yet humble destination hotel in this beautiful town of southern Thailand.

The brief given to the architect is a unique resort that consists of a series of pool villas with maximum ocean views. Facilities such as a reception lounge, swimming pool, pool bar, beachfront restaurant, spa, fitness, and library are the must-have programs in this hotel. The owner challenged the architect to create a a bold look of architecture but one that yields to warmth and nature after its implied name, “flora.”

VaSLab’s metaphorical design takes on the act of “arising flora,” where each concrete versus wood villa reflects as a flora form, emerges from the ground, and blooms to reach the daylight. Deviated walls and tilted roofs are characterized throughout the series of 36 cubic-form villas, where these tapered elements do not only recall the act of arising flora but widen the rooms’ perspective frames when looking outward to the sea.

The continuity of these lines can also be seen in the interior space and interior elements such as built-in beds, coffee tables, and built-in cabinets. Custom-made furniture designed by Anon Pairot Design Studio carries this thematic design, as some of them represent the organic form of a flora. The same concept is carried throughout the landscape and hardscape work from talented designer T.R.O.P., who extends the lines of architecture into a set of charming pathways, pavement blocks, and green walls as they act like the architecture’s root, stem, and branches. APLD, the lighting designer, abstractly sets the resort’s lighting to provoke the main architectural elements; deviated walls and tilted roofs, as if the villa cubes are arising above the ground.

Its glass-fronted villas have clean interiors featuring concrete surfaces, natural stone walls, and wooden floors/ ceilings. Ten units stand directly to the beach, with maximum sea views, and all come with private pools, 24-hour butler service, and the latest in-room entertainment. Eco-friendly credentials come in the form of an ozone (low-chemical) purification system for the swimming pools and wastewater and rainwater recycling.

Photos: Courtesy of VaSLab Architecture