NIRAS CHIANG MAI
- May 6
- 4 min read
Hostel Design Inspired by Niras Chiang Mai — A Journey Through Memory and Place
Category : Hostel
Location : Chiangmai ,Thailand
Area : 700 Sq.m.
Year : 2017
One of our most ambitious and enjoyable projects of 2017 began with a simple yet abstract question:
What is your “Niras”?
In Thai literature, Niras tells the story of a journey of leaving,
longing, and the emotional connection between people and places.
This idea became the foundation of our design for Niras Chiang Mai, a hotel inspired by stories of travelers who arrive from afar, each carrying their own narrative.
The project was initiated by the owner of Niras Bangkok, who invited us to design a new branch in Chiang Mai. With an already strong identity rooted in Rattanakosin-era storytelling, the challenge was clear:
How do we create something new, yet meaningfully connected?
We began our journey—literally—by traveling to Chiang Mai by train.
This slow journey set the tone for the project, allowing us to experience movement, transition, and anticipation—the very essence of Niras.
Explore Our Journey in link below
Onsite
From Site to Story
The site was a small, existing hotel in the heart of the city:a two-story wooden house with masonry on the ground floor, surrounded by single-story guest rooms and centered around a courtyard with a large tropical tree.
Rather than replacing what existed, we chose to reinterpret it.
But before designing, we explored the city—absorbing its layers of identity: Lanna architecture, cultural heritage, historical traces, and even the vibrant nightlife. These fragments became the building blocks of a narrative that blends multiple timelines.
Survey
Storyline
Concept: A Living Story of Lanna
We constructed a fictional storyline set during the late 19th century, when Chiang Mai became part of Siam during the reign of King Rama V.
The story follows a noblewoman traveling from Bangkok in search of truth, crossing paths with a German engineer and a group of individuals from different parts of the world—each carrying their own past and purpose.
This narrative became our design framework.
Each space, each room, each detail was imagined as part of this unfolding story.
Masterplan & Spatial Strategy
The project was divided into four main zones:
Central Courtyard — a communal space for relaxation and activities
Two-Story Main Building — reception, café, and studio rooms
Private Guest Rooms — for small groups seeking comfort and privacy
Dormitory Zone — for backpackers, encouraging social interaction
The courtyard was later transformed into a swimming pool—designed like a water basin within an archaeological ruin, surrounded by brick and raw plaster textures.
Wait—just noticed this sketch was dated July 7, 2017. Quite a memorable timestamp.
This elevation sketch brings the conceptual backstory to life, seamlessly layering Western architectural details over a fusion of ancient ruins and indigenous vernacular design.
Once the masterplan and key design ideas for both architecture and interior were established, it was time to bring everything together—and step into the final hotel design.
The exterior introduces the narrative through the remains of a partially ruined old city wall—evoking the atmosphere of the ancient Lanna era. Layered over this is a composition of bamboo elements, suggesting a temporary camp set upon the ruins.
The central space brings together a rich blend of architectural influences—colonial details, vernacular northern Thai houses, and fragments of archaeological remains—creating a layered environment where history, culture, and imagination coexist.
Reception as an Archaeological Camp
The reception area was designed as a field office for an excavation site—a meeting point for travelers, explorers, and storytellers.
The interior combines:
Pinewood walls
Safari-style furniture
Objects that blur time—ropes, tools, trunks, and artifacts
A typewriter corner allows guests to write postcards—bringing the concept of storytelling into a tangible experience.
Rooms as Characters
Each room represents a character in the story:
The Master Suite — the residence of the German engineer
The Guest Chamber — for the noblewoman from Bangkok
The Private Rooms — belonging to different team members: a French professor, a Dutch photographer, an English interpreter
Every room carries subtle narrative details, encouraging guests to discover the story through space.
Dormitory: Life in the Excavation Tunnel
The dormitory was designed as an underground excavation tunnel—raw, minimal, and immersive.
Bunk beds sit within a rugged environment of scaffolding and unfinished textures, softened by personal elements like poems and photographs—suggesting longing and connection.
The common area is designed as an excavation tunnel, where a set of rail tracks leads the eye deep into the main hall—becoming a defining feature of the space. Guest rooms are imagined as individual excavation pits, supported by scaffolding structures, creating a raw and immersive atmosphere where guests quite literally “settle in” within the site.
Bathrooms are kept simple and honest, using natural materials such as bamboo, brick, and plaster, finished with affordable local tiles. The overall experience embraces a humble, back-to-basics lifestyle—an idea we intentionally pushed forward, and one that the client fully embraced.
Imagine staying here with a group of friends—the setting transforms into a shared adventure, making the experience not just memorable, but genuinely fun.
A Hotel as an Ongoing Narrative
This project was more than architecture. It was storytelling through space.
A place where history, fiction, and experience overlap—where every guest becomes part of the narrative.
Because in the end, every journey is different.
And the question remains:
What is your Niras?
Lastly, a special thanks to KOD Chiang Mai for being our home during this journey. If your next trip to Chiang Mai doesn’t include Niras Chiang Mai just yet, we highly recommend staying at “KOD” in the meantime.
As a final note, we’ve included a behind-the-scenes video capturing the moment our team revisited the site—walking through the space, refining details, and preparing for the construction drawings phase.
