A Townhouse Revival

In downtown Bangkok, a four-storey townhouse gets a new lease on life as eclectic boutique hotel B HOUSE 49

Tucked in a small alley just off central Bangkok’s Sukhumvit road, B HOUSE 49’s pastel-coloured facade and scalloped awning stand out from its monochrome neighbours. The owners of this townhouse used is infrequently as a home office, until they commissioned Bangkok-based architecture firm BEGRAY to breathe new life into the four-story building. 

The outcome is something between a clutch of serviced apartments (each unit comes with a fully equipped kitchenette) and a boutique hotel, which has influenced the overall blueprint. ‘Hotel rooms tend to have less functional space in order to maximise the number of overall rooms,’ says Jakarin Aksravadeewat, design director at BEGRAY. ‘We’ve integrated typically public areas, such as lobbies and living rooms, into the units themselves, making them feel more like a home.'

Working with a typical inner-city townhouse as their canvas, the firm aimed to retain the existing structure as much as possible and rearranged the building plan to fit five different guest rooms. In terms of the interiors, Aksravadeewat says that ‘the design started from the owner’s passion for vintage furniture. As a collector and dealer of vintage pieces, he wanted the property to take guests on a journey through his collection.’ And so, unlike hotels that are typically constrained by a cohesive style, each of B HOUSE 49's five units is done up with a different aesthetic in mind. With its groovy starburst wallpaper and floral jacquard-covered sofa, the J.K Lennon room feels more like a 1960s film set, while the straight lines and tactile fabrics in the lofty top-floor Neil room give off a Scandinavian feel. In the Frances room, exposed brick walls and marble floors hint to a rustic Brooklyn brownstone, and the Gil and Matilda rooms, each taking up half of the third floor, reference a more classic era with their burgundy wall panelling and wooden columns. 

Despite the eclectic mix of furniture and styles, the rooms remain universally bold and modern thanks to their mostly straight lines, contemporary art works, quality amenities and terrazzo-heavy bathrooms.

With properties like these often being replaced with gleaming condominiums, especially in prime locations like Sukhumvit, projects like B HOUSE 49 play an important role in preserving central Bangkok’s unique townhouses and low-rise residential alleys. And as Aksravadeewat says, ’The renovation has brought this old townhouse back to life.’

Text / Chris Schalkx
Images / Pichan Sujaritsatit