Baan Nhuer Nham Restaurant / Looklen Architects

Loftily poised just by the Chao Praya River, “Baan Nhuer Nham” or the “House Above Water” is a cozy and intimate second-generation restaurant. Though it now sits on a rectangular plot of land that stretches from the road to the edge of the riverside, it once was a small, almost 60-year-old two-story building. According to the owner, the decision to expand the property was made so it could accommodate an ever-growing influx of customers, whilst also going for being redesigned and decorated to attract even wider audiences to come. Built upon an old dam amid mature trees and persevering wild greenery, the designer of this expansion felt the property would best be highlighted by careful grooming and reinvigoration of the plot’s existing building. Rather than build an entirely new structure in place of the old and charming little building and dam, they would instead be juxtaposed and elevated against new features and adornments.