The houses collected here offer six different answers. They range from a tightly composed courtyard residence to an expansive family retreat, taking in Pratumnak, a reservoir-side setting and the coast around Bang Saray. Together, they reveal a side of Pattaya residential architecture that deserves a closer look.[1][2][3][4]
Some make an immediate impression through scale or structure. Others become more interesting when you understand their plans. What earns each a place here is a distinctive design response—not simply a large floor area, an expensive finish or a swimming pool.
This is an architectural selection, not a catalogue of properties offered for sale. The area covered includes Pattaya and its surrounding coastal communities.
1. HOUSE of CITY | MOUNTAIN | TREE: making a large house feel connected
Location: Pratumnak, Pattaya
Architect: SPACE | STORY | STUDIO
There is a useful story behind this unusually ambitious residence. The owner initially approached SPACE | STORY | STUDIO for interior design. Reviewing the brief led the team to propose a new architectural scheme instead: the relationships between the rooms, the landscape and the hillside needed to be resolved together.[1:1]
The resulting four-storey house forms an L around a garden and pool. A separate entertainment pavilion allows social activities to sit alongside a more private family residence. The challenge was therefore not just fitting everything in, but allowing different kinds of life to coexist.[1:2]
The project’s name describes its organising ideas. A planning grid provides the urban order of “city”; terraces and changing levels interpret “mountain”; and branching patterns inform the façade’s varying degrees of screening and openness under “tree”. These are working principles, rather than three decorative themes applied to the finished building.[1:3]
What makes the approach interesting is the tension between scale and intimacy. A large home can easily become a collection of suites connected by corridors. Here, terraces and shared outdoor spaces offer a different possibility: movement through the house becomes part of its relationship with the landscape.
The façade is best understood at the scale of a terrace rather than from a distant viewpoint. Its depth and screening matter as much as its silhouette: the distinction is between simply displaying a large house and giving its occupants places to enjoy without always being on display themselves.
Explore the project on Architizer.
2. Casa Pattaya: creating an outlook rather than borrowing one
Location: Pattaya
Architect: makeAscene
Published project area: 1,200 m² · Year: 2021
Casa Pattaya begins with a familiar conflict: the desire for a relaxed, open home on a site where neighbouring buildings are close. makeAscene’s response was to give the spaces between the building’s volumes as much attention as the rooms themselves.[2:1]
Instead of treating the garden as whatever remained after the house was placed, the design uses courtyards, a central living deck and a light well to shape the experience from within. An entertainment pavilion is connected by a timber-lined, semi-outdoor route.[2:2]
This is a particularly persuasive approach to an urban villa. The house does not need every boundary to offer a beautiful outlook, because it creates a more carefully controlled one of its own.
Upstairs, circulation around the light well links the bedroom wings, while the central deck below can shift between indoor and outdoor use. The interesting element is the sequence: arrival, enclosure, an opening to the sky, then a longer view across the house.[2:3]
It also offers a useful way to think about space. A courtyard may appear on a schedule as an absence of built floor area, yet it can make the surrounding rooms more desirable. Its contribution is shared by several spaces at once.
For anyone looking at contemporary houses in Pattaya, Casa Pattaya is a reminder to study what lies beyond the glass. The quality of an opening depends on what it frames, not merely on its dimensions.
Explore the project on ArchDaily.
3. Residence P: finding the right height for coastal living
Location: Baan Talay, Pattaya
Architect: A U N Design Studio
Published gross built area: 1,888 m² · Completed: 2014
Residence P demonstrates why a coastal house sometimes needs to be understood in section—the arrangement of its levels—as much as in plan.
The plot does not meet the sea directly. A road and a stretch of lawn separate it from the shoreline. A U N Design Studio raised the principal entrances and living accommodation above road level, using the lower level for parking and supporting functions. This improved the outlook while separating everyday family life from the public frontage.[5]
The house opens towards the Gulf of Thailand on one side and a lake on the other, with more closed elevations towards its lateral neighbours. Deep balconies and overhangs temper the extensive glazing. Inside, a double-height family room contrasts with a lower-ceilinged formal living room intended for conversation.[5:1]
That last decision is especially telling. In a house of this size, it would be easy to make every room a demonstration of volume. Giving spaces different proportions suggests a more considered understanding of occasion: a family gathering and a quiet conversation do not necessarily need the same setting.
The approach to the entrance is similarly part of the architecture, not just a way of reaching the front door. A change in level can create a gradual transition from the public world to the private one.
Residence P’s lesson is not that coastal houses should always be raised. It is that the most obvious place to put the main living room is not necessarily the best. A different level can change the entire relationship between a house and its surroundings.
Explore the architect’s project feature. The house was also published in Ocean Villas by Li-Zenn Publishing.[5:2]
4. Bang Saray House by Architectkidd: tropical design with a restrained palette
Location: Bang Saray
Architect: Architectkidd, in collaboration with Peter Hedrich
Published building area: 300 m²
At 300 m², Architectkidd’s Bang Saray House provides a valuable change of scale. Designed for a Swiss family living in the region, it arranges five bedrooms along the upper floor, with cooking, dining and living spaces below, facing the pool and garden.[6]
The composition is direct: slim concrete floor edges, generous openings and an upper level wrapped with vertical timber screens. Reclaimed hardwood was specified for the wooden elements, giving the restrained building a warmer, more textured counterpart to its concrete and steel.[6:1]
Its openness is supported by post-tensioned concrete slabs. In the architects’ account, this system enables uninterrupted ground-floor spaces and large opening glass panels. The timber screening above provides shade while allowing natural airflow.[6:2]
What stands out is the relationship between those decisions. Structure enables openness; screening makes that openness more selective. The two floors can consequently behave differently without appearing to belong to different buildings.
There is also a quiet economy to the material palette. Concrete is allowed to read as concrete, timber as timber, and the furniture does not have to carry the burden of giving the house its identity. This is an appealing alternative to making a home distinctive through an accumulation of decorative finishes.
The broader lesson is about precision rather than austerity. A restrained house still needs richness, but that richness can come from light through a screen, the depth of a reveal or the contrast between a sheltered room and an open garden.
Explore the project on ArchDaily.
5. Bang Sa Ray House by Junsekino: a family retreat organised beneath one roof
Location: Bang Saray
Architect: Junsekino Architecture & Design
Completed: 2015
Despite the similar name, this is an entirely different house from Architectkidd’s project.
Junsekino’s Bang Sa Ray House was designed as a holiday retreat for an extended family across several generations. The brief called for both shared life and independence: places to gather, but also accommodation that could adapt to different family groups.[3:1]
The principal communal spaces and pool terrace are elevated, with private accommodation above. A broad, deliberately thin-looking roof draws the composition together. The site lies approximately 1 km from the sea, and the house was positioned to receive the breeze. Its open grounds include a private par-3 golf course.[3:2]
The golf course is the unusual detail, but the more useful architectural story is the organisation of shared space. A family holiday house needs more than enough bedrooms. It needs to make being together easy without making separation difficult.
The roof gives this collection of spaces a common identity. Visually, it helps an extensive programme read as one composition rather than a series of unrelated additions. The contrast between its reach and its thin edge is a large part of the building’s character.[3:3]
For a reader considering a multigenerational home, this is the project to study for relationships rather than finishes. Where do different groups meet naturally? How far does someone have to withdraw to find quiet? Can one part of the house remain active while another rests?
Those questions are relevant at a much smaller scale. They are also more durable than any particular interior style.
Explore the project on Architizer.
6. BF House: giving the family a shared centre
Location: Pattaya, beside a reservoir
Architect and interior designer: PH/AD
Published project area: 480 m²
Also known as Baan Duangdara, BF House brings the selection away from the coast. Its brief centred on a reservoir outlook, views of the night sky and a home that would draw the family together while preserving individual privacy.[4:1]
PH/AD organised the three-storey house with guest and garden-connected activities at the lowest level, and private accommodation above. All four bedrooms face the reservoir. A shared family space occupies the heart of the house and opens vertically towards the upper level, maintaining connections between different parts of the home.[4:2]
This distinction between connection and exposure is important. Family members do not need to occupy the same room all day to feel part of the same household. A glimpse across a shared space, or a route that passes through it, can create a less demanding form of togetherness.
The building’s outward-facing rooms and internal centre address two different needs: access to the landscape and awareness of the people inside. Neither has to displace the other.
BF House also introduces a different kind of waterfront architecture. An outlook worth designing around need not be a sea horizon. What matters is how consistently the plan makes use of it.
Its strongest idea is therefore not simply giving the bedrooms a view. It is arranging the house so that the shared centre remains meaningful after everyone has a private room to retreat to.
Explore the project and photography on Design Connext.
What these houses suggest about good residential architecture
The most useful way to read this selection is not as six styles to copy. It is as six examples of deciding what deserves priority.
Design the outlook, not just the window
A large opening is only one part of a view. Its position, the distance to the boundary and the space immediately outside all matter to the composition. A sheltered terrace can give a view a foreground; a courtyard can create an outlook where the surrounding neighbourhood offers little to borrow.
When looking at a house, try standing mentally behind the camera. What would be visible from the sofa rather than the photographer’s carefully chosen position? Would the bedroom offer the same sense of openness with the curtains drawn back? These are often more revealing questions than the total amount of glazing.
Give outdoor living somewhere to happen
A garden, pool and terrace can be listed as three separate amenities. Architecturally, their relationship is the interesting part. Is there a comfortable place to pause between the indoor room and the exposed garden? Does the dining table belong naturally beside the terrace, or is outdoor entertaining an expedition from the kitchen?
The ambition should be to make these spaces feel like part of the home’s everyday territory. That requires attention to shelter, access, proportion and the practical location of furniture—not just an attractive exterior composition.
Pay attention to levels and thresholds
Floor plans tell you what is beside what. Sections reveal what sits above what, which rooms can see over an obstruction, and where height is used for drama or intimacy.
It is worth asking for both when considering an architect-designed home. A double-height room may be memorable, but a sequence of well-proportioned spaces can be just as compelling. The moment of passing from a lower, more enclosed room into a taller, brighter one often matters more than either space alone.
Treat privacy as a design decision
Privacy need not mean sealing off a house. It can be organised through orientation, changes in level, screens, planting and the placement of shared rooms.
A useful test is to imagine several activities happening simultaneously: guests arriving, someone working, children playing and another person resting. Does the plan allow these activities to coexist? A home that answers that question well has an advantage that may not be obvious in its first photograph.
From architectural inspiration to finding a home in Pattaya
The practical value of looking at these houses is not necessarily finding one to reproduce. It is becoming more precise about what you would enjoy living with.
Perhaps the important feature is a private courtyard, a genuinely usable covered terrace, separate guest accommodation, or a layout that makes the most of a particular outlook. Those are useful criteria for a property search, whether the eventual home is newly built, older or ready for renovation.
For an existing property, explore our houses and villas for sale in Pattaya. Look beyond the bedroom count and ask which of the qualities above are already present—and which would require substantial changes.
For a custom home, our land for sale in Pattaya and the surrounding area offers a starting point. Bring an architect into the plot-selection process early: assess access, orientation, neighbouring development and the usable building footprint alongside land area. Buildability and ownership suitability should be checked before committing.
Contact Blue Horizon Condos with the kind of home or setting you have in mind, and we can help focus the property search.
The common thread through these projects is attention to how a place will be lived in. Their most transferable ideas are not necessarily their most expensive features. Sometimes, the important decision is simply where to put the room, how deeply to shelter the terrace, or which view to leave open.
Sources
SPACE | STORY | STUDIO, HOUSE of CITY | MOUNTAIN | TREE, project description on Architizer. Lists the project as built, with a project year of 2025. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
makeAscene, Casa Pattaya, architect-provided description published by ArchDaily, 30 January 2022. Project year 2021; area 1,200 m²; photography credited to Krisada Boonchaleow. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Junsekino Architecture & Design, Bang Sa Ray House, project description and credits on Architizer. Lists the project as built in 2015 and credits Spaceshift Studio for photography. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
PH/AD, BF_House / Baan Duangdara, project description and credits on Design Connext. Published area 480 m²; architecture and interiors by PH/AD; landscape by Banyen Landscape; photography by PanoramicStudio. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
A U N Design Studio, Residence P, architect’s project feature and credits. Completed 2014; gross built area 1,888 m²; photography credited to Wison Tungthunya & W Workspace; publication reference: Ocean Villas, Li-Zenn Publishing. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Architectkidd, Swiss Tropical / Bang Saray House, architect’s project feature, and Bang Saray House / Architectkidd, ArchDaily. Building area 300 m²; collaboration with Peter Hedrich; photography credited to Luke Yeung. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎