Bangkok-based architecture firm onion has combined white concave and convex walls with colorful surfaces for this beach resort in Thailand.

The project, named Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort, Phase 02, Sala Chaweng was designed as a 144-room hotel in Samui Island’s Chaweng Beach which is one of the most beautiful beaches in the Gulf of Thailand.

Realised as two phases, the first building is a 52-room hotel on the beachfront, while the other building is 82-room resort on the roadside. These two phases are divided by a street.

Combination of colorful surfaces, internal gardens, patios and arched white walls create like "a mini city" feeling to allow guests to walk around freely. 

Onion started designing 138-room Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort five years ago in the scope of architecture, interior, hardscape including decks and swimming pools, furniture, lighting and object designs. 

In January 2018, the 52-room beachfront phase was opened for Sala’s guests. Every room has a private swimming pool and the sea view. 

Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort

There are 2-bedroom Presidential Pool Villa next to the beach, framed the view by the old Banyan trees, 4-pool Villas and the rest of the guest rooms are in the 3-storey building. Each room has different features. 

On the first floor, Garden Pool Suites have the swimming pool on the rear. On the second and the third floors, Balcony Pool Suites have private swimming pool rooms on the balconies overlooking the central beachfront courtyard. The third floor also has the 1-bedroom Pool Suites facing the ocean. 

Sala Chaweng Beachfront has a single big swimming pool courtyard next to the sea, which is bright and active.

Onion’s design references are based on an observation that "our perceptions of the moon change every night, even if the source of light remains the same. Full moon is the time when we see the moon". 

"Black moon is the period when we see no moon. Crescent moon is in the space in between. Everything at Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort is designed to enhance a sequence of light, shade and shadow," said the studio.

As the team explains, the design process starts by these two questions: what Sala’s guests would like to see and how they would like to live when they stay at Chaweng Beach. 

The studio decided to leave a maximum open air space next to the beach. "This courtyard functions like a bright living room. There is no attempt to control the circulation. Guests are free to walk around in whatever direction they want."

The continuous long and flat facade of the beachfront building is painted in white colour. That is to highlight the crescent shadows of the precast concrete walls. 

 the team details, they used 7 different curves that are layered from the building, and they envelop the interior spaces. Each curved wall separates each activity such as swimming, bathing and sleeping. Moving shadows make each room different. 

Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort Roadside 

Sala Chaweng Roadside is composed of many smaller courtyards, without linear circulation, full of existing trees. The Roadside is shaded, it is more passive, private and quite than the Beachfront.

Each courtyard in the Roadside has a domestic characteristic because we think that it is easier for our guests to remember the spaces. These 5 courtyards are named the Outdoor Stairwell, the Outdoor Dining Room, the Outdoor Living Room, the Outdoor Play Room and the Outdoor Bedroom. 

Each of them is occupied by household furnitures and elements such as single-flight stairs, 12-seat-round table, sofas, swings, beds and giant lamps. 

All of these domestic furnitures are placed in-between existing trees and newly planted greenery. Guests can relax in beds, larger than king-size, shaded by big trees next to the public swimming pool, having a drink served from the pool bar and feel that, in this strange setting, they are indeed on holiday.

The architects said that "we direct our attention to the sky. In every transitions between the courtyards, we open the vertical voids in different shapes, size and materials." 

"Layers of bamboo rectangle voids are placed between the Outdoor Dining Room and the Outdoor Bedroom whereas oval concrete voids in white colour are composed in the transition space between the Outdoor Dining Room and the Outdoor Living Room. We encourage our guests to look up at the sky and to feel the warmth of the sun."

A dominant architectural element of Sala Chaweng Roadside are the white walls. "They are long, massive, sometimes concave and sometimes convex. The effects of shadow are what we are interested in when we were drawing the walls," added the studio. 

It is only in the spa area that the studio uses colours, dark green and later on pink. 

These coloured walls set a new spatial experience to our spa guests. As the sun moves, the light changes its direction, architecture becomes alive. 

Bathtub of the spa room is placed in the garden surrounded by the dark green walls. The clear glass door brings nature into the treatment room. There is no clear distinction between the interior and the exterior spaces in Sala Chaweng Roadside. 

There are 4 types of room in Sala Chaweng Roadside, namely Garden Two Bedroom Pool Suite covering 329 square meters, Garden One Bedroom Duplex Pool Suite covering 181square meters, 77-square-metre Garden Pool Villa and a 45-square-metre Garden Deluxe Balcony.

The architects also designed a variety of objects composed in the room, such as the lamps, the beach bag, rattan shelves and knotted ropes for pulling the drawers. 

Each room tends to have a private backyard that our guests can relax on a huge circular outdoor bed next to their private swimming pool. The architecture of the interior in Sala Chaweng is the extension of the exterior and vice versa.

Spa plan

Spa section

Project facts 

Project name: Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort, Phase 02

Architects: onion

Location: Thailand

Size: 16,000m2

Date: 2020

All images © Wworkspace

All drawings © onion

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