Page 22 - Reside Magazine Briggs Freeman

This Phuket home in Thailand, built
in 2021, combines concrete and
glass in harmonized contradictions

Photos: Spaceshift Studio; Manfredi Gioacchini; W Workspace; Richard Powers. All Courtesy of WHY Architecture.

he says, “and that’s f lexible space—a place
for me to host and socialize. I wanted a pool,
a garden, a dog; the whole American dream
in my own little version.”
The house is concrete because Yantrasast
“loves” the material—perhaps an inevitable
preference, having worked with the master
of concrete, Ando, for so long. “I like the raw
honesty of it. Concrete tells you how it’s made.
It’s like a pound cake: there’s no decoration,
no whipped cream.”
Nevertheless, he doesn’t “worship at the
church of concrete” either, noting that for
the material to work in a home, the presence
of light and nature is crucial. “Without that,
it’s a bunker,” he says. “But if concrete
is done with the elevation of light, space,
water and plants, like [French modernist
architect] Le Corbusier, all of a sudden it’s
actually quite beautiful.”
He turned to the material for a house in
Phuket that utilizes the format of nested concrete
frames, as well as the Malibu residence for the
art collector. Looking at these structures of
rectilinear concrete planes, open space and little ornamentation, it is easy to
come to the conclusion that Yantrasast is a minimalist. Does he identify as one?
“I definitely understand and appreciate minimalism, but I see limitations
in it,” he says. “Because minimalism seems to relate to reductionism.” Instead,
he would like to be known as “the soulful minimalist.” He returns to the
Japanese and Thai styles that influence him—a mix of “sushi and Pad Thai,”
he says, smiling—and ref lects on how he moved from Japan to the U.S.
to enjoy more “variety and diversity.”
Certainly, this variety plays out in a house he designed in Chiang Mai,
Thailand. While some exposed concrete structure is present, the house is
characterized by a large sweeping roof, covered in clay tiles and referencing
traditional Thai architecture. It is filled with teak f loors and surfaces.
“Growing up in Bangkok, wood is such a big part of what I like to do—there’s
a sense of warmth to it,” Yantrasast says. Photos: Steven Ko; Ozan Gür; HDP Photography; Yellowdot; Keith Chan.
In his buildings, everything has its right place, but there is no set formula.
Instead, each design decision is responsive. Much like the curators of the
great art institutions he designs for, Yantrasast carefully considers context,
setting and experience. For him, life—not just priceless works—is the art
that architecture serves to host. 0
Francesca Perry is a London-based editor and writer on design, cities,
architecture, art and culture

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