Thai Red Cross Foundation Children Home

Located in Nakhon Pathom, this cluster of buildings is a children foster care village patronized by Thai Red Cross Children Home. The project consists of seven types of building which are Director House, Lecturer House, Trainee Dormitory, Children House, Training Hall, Canteen and Service Building. Sufficiency Economy, which is King Bhumiphol’s Philosophy, is the major theme of this project. According to the project’s theme, the architects decided to approach the concept toward “Self-Sustaining Architecture”. Designing master plan is the first key of the design, we mostly concerned about building orientation, split each function into small building and placed them in overlapping composition, so each building won’t block each other but will get cross-ventilation and also provide overlapping shade to nearby building as well. At the back of the land plot is another part of the project which was applied as an agricultural demonstration area. The second key of the design is to create an open space, curve line is applied to the roof in order to enhance the character of open space and provide pocket court which will be a community space between buildings. The third key of the design is the architectural elements, a roof with big eave is one of the tropical architectural elements we applied to the building to provide shaded space. The sun-shade fins are applied at the West and South side of the building, the openings are placed between the vertical fins to provide shade but still allow the wind to get through the space. Moreover, we selected local natural material like bricks as the main building’s material, which is economical and remain the essence of localness.