The quest to own a prime house in Bangkok leads to either buying or building, but not so many quality homes come up for sale, and suitable plots are scarce. There is, however, a ‘blue ocean’ solution. Despite the city’s ongoing transition from a low-rise townscape of 60 and more years ago towards an increasingly high-density metropolis dotted with condominium towers, there remains a vast supply of shophouses and townhouses, still the predominant type of building in every one of the city’s 50 districts, designed to serve almost any combination of small-scale retail, wholesale, production, administrative, professional and residential functions. If only the caveats could be overcome. In examples built in recent decades, these structures have been characterised by long, narrow rooms and inner spaces that lack natural light and ventilation. Corridors and stairways subtract from usable space. Most properties were constructed en masse during the 1970s–1990s and are ageing rapidly. Nature is nowhere in sight. Enter design qua, an eco-forward modernist architectural studio co-founded in 2005 by Italian-Thai Malina Palasthira and her American partner in practice and in…
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