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Most of the design subjects featured in this Better Living column are related to new developments on the island; beautiful private homes, notable new resorts, and structures, as rare as they are to find on Koh Samui, that showcase high quality examples of the architectural designers art. As we start our second year of publication we thought it a good time to comment on some of Koh Samui's most commonplace architecture, commercial buildings, and to showcase stylish variations on the most traditional of local structures, the classic Chinese Shop House.
One of our recent cover
stories was about the
original Chinese community
on Koh Samui, and the
capital town of Nathon, the
first significant settlement
on the island. Chinese
settlers were the first to set
up what qualifies as a
formal community on the
island, and since these
settlers were more traders
than coconut farmers or
fishermen the Chinese Shop
House is really the original
style of building on Koh
Samui. The common style sensibilities of regional builders generally run counter to those of the
newer residents of the island, who are primarily European people, or educated Asians who come
to Koh Samui to work or to build second homes away from their busy urban lives in Bangkok,
Hong Kong, or Singapore.
Local Thai people like to build their homes as close to the road
as possible, while those with Western sensibilities prefer to build
their homes as far from the busy roads as possible.
Local Thai
builders like to embellish structures with dozens of different
decorative elements, and continue to build in a regional style
that over accentuates vertical lines, and oddly enough, emulate
antiquated Regency or Empire style architectural features. In
contrast to this, people with a European sensibility often come
to Asia seeking a connection to things traditionally Asian, and
therefore prefer homes with much cleaner design lines, minimal
or classical architectural elements, and design accents that
showcase Asian decorative arts.
Outside residential or resort architecture is the far larger category
of commercial buildings. Over the last year we've only showcased
one commercial building, an interesting interpretation of colonial
architecture located in Chaweng. Commercial buildings are
certainly the most dominant type of building on the island, yet only a small percentage of them
are in the original Chinese Shop House style, and fewer still are recently constructed buildings
that have any sort of style related to a more refined, classical look.
The fisherman's Village of Bhophut is one of the few
places where Westerners have taken some of these old
shop houses and converted them into interesting
dwellings or businesses. A lot of Samui’s wooden shop
houses are quite old or in a state of fairly sad repair,
and because they're so close to the road they are
generally of little interest to those investing in
redeveloping the island. This is something of a small
tragedy, because these shop houses are the primary
feature of Koh Samui’s traditional urban profile. There
have been some notable new shop houses constructed
around the island in the last year, and in this months
magazine we'd like to highlight them, and on a few
others like them, that are notable exceptions to the all
too common ‘industrial eyesore’ style of commercial
building.
Koh Samui has yet to achieve the international
status of the Indonesian island of Bali, where the
boutiques and shops lining the streets of Kuta Beach
have evolved from funky bamboo shacks into dramatic
and world-class showrooms, often using eccentric and
amazing architectural designs.
Except for a few newer boutiques and restaurants in Chaweng, some of the new bars in Lamai,
and that space-age looking mirrored office building near Laem Takien, most of the commercial
buildings on Koh Samui are so dismal looking that they are actually a blight on the island. The
majority of new roadside commercial buildings are little more than a grid of boxy narrow concrete
bunkers with gray roll down steel doors. This is what is meant by ‘industrial eyesore’ architecture,
and it is a look that pays zero homage to the original shop houses of Koh Samui; those unique
wooden structures that one can see in the old fishing villages of Bophut, Hua Thanon, Ban Talay,
and on the center street of old Nathon.
There should be more
attention paid to the potential value of replacing those mind
numbing roadside concrete bunkers with the much more visually
appealing and inviting looking classic style structures.
Some of the Shop Houses pictured here are converted classics,
others are brand new, but all share a love for the old style, and
try to preserve the sense of a more humane era, and to display a creative use of wood, both in the structure and in the embellishment of the façade.
Unless you’re using expensive Teak or other hardwoods building in natural wood is a high
maintenance proposition, particularly in the tropics. That said, modern Shop Houses can still
be built in more economical masonry and then
enough wooden elements to capture the feeling
of the classic style can be added. There is a
hint of romance and rich tradition associated
with buildings that represent the classic look
of times past.
In this era of mass fabricated
structures that not only have no style at all but
also actually degrade the landscape seeing
even one of these classic style Shop Houses
along the road is like finding a flower in a
field of weeds.
I just hope that as more money comes into the
local community that there will be an increased number of these funky gems being built. They are
a perfect alternative to those cheapo bomb shelter style buildings that turn Koh Samui’s village
communities into a boring blur of identically forgettable destinations. Nicer looking commercial
buildings attract better quality businesses, and offer workspaces stylish enough to interest the
talented people that the Koh Samui community wants and needs. Built in a classic style, commercial
buildings with real character can turn an already nice looking island into a successful and enchanting
holiday spot. Just ask Walt Disney if it works. DR |
