A bizarre building to begin with, and not terribly climate-friendly in its tropical Thai surroundings, this old concrete warehouse (and would-be human habitat) was a homely candidate for conversion that turned out to be the basis of a richly variegated and highly functional residential building.

Mosquito movements are bad, but air flow is good – thus the first and most major step: surrounding the building in a shroud of black mesh, giving new shape to the exterior along curved bamboo supports.

Still, beneath this new sheath much of the original structure was salvageable – strong concrete masonry walls on most sides supporting a corrugated metal roof which were largely able to be left in place and worked around and over.

Reinforcing and building out from what was already onsite made for a faster, cheaper and richer result at the end of the project.

Inside the netting, indoor space flows into the outdoors – day-and-night-friendly patio areas made accessible via newly-introduced doors and decoratively-designed windows and frames, keeping the rain at bay but allowing for natural breezes.

Behind common areas are bathrooms and bedroom space for (optionally) more closed-off with solid walls for privacy or sleep.

The playfully-titled Hua-Hin Hut by equally-irreverent Sea Monkey Coconut (images by Wachirasak Maneewatanaperk) responds to regional environmental and human-comfort needs in balance with an eye toward the contemporary, simple and classically modern use of planes, lines and asymmetrical design elements.

“For us, this renovation project was not just to make the building looks better but to find a possibility of enhancing the relationship between existing spaces, in and out. The change of use has a big impact on all elements that define spaces. Hua Hin Hut is a conversion of a small warehouse in Hua Hin, Thailand to be a house. The idea is to setting up the dwelling unit on the site where the dweller can live, work, growing food in order to reduce a traveling distance in everyday life.”