Crew's Control

Young Thai studio Creative Crews finds a worldwide audience for three very different projects: a rural homestay, a classroom for the blind, and their own office, all indicative of the practice’s adaptive design solutions

- MH Canlas

The number three seems to be a harbinger of good luck for this three-year-old practice based in Bangkok’s Talad Noi heritage quarters. Creative Crews’ first stab at the World Architecture Festival and INSIDE Festival of Interiors has yielded them three shortlist nods for projects that couldn’t be more different from each other: their own office, housed in two repurposed row houses; a rustic farm stay seeking to rejuvenate traditional vernacular architecture; and finally, a multi-sensory classroom for a school for the visually impaired.

Studio director and co-founder Puiphai Kunawat is no stranger to joining the WAF, having won previously in the Future Project Residential Category for Somdoon Architects, which she co-founded after working for respected Singapore practice, WOHA. The decision to enter WAF again this year was one she and co-founder Ekkachan Eiamananwattana made to put out work they feel is deserving of scrutiny and criticism by their peers. “Putting one’s work up for critique is, we believe a healthy part of one’s career. WAF is a well-respected awards event, and thus the appeal for submission is almost inevitable,” Kunawat says.

The willingness to learn and listen, especially from other architects, is indicative of Creative Crews’ acknowledgment of their youth as a practice, as well as their hunger to grow, and fast. “Our practice is still in progress; we believe in complexity and diversity in society. A building is a part of a city. We extend our project range to better our understanding of the roles our spaces place within the greater scheme of things, and able to come out with a more complete design solution.”