Chocolate Factory

HUA HIN, THAILAND – The province of Hua Hin has escaped some of the development that has consumed other Thai resorts, but it is still very much a destination. Party/Space/Design's client asked the team to make the Chocolate Factory café and shop a destination too. After researching the history of the Hua Hin region, including its vernacular and sea-side colonial architecture – the Klai Kangwon Palace, Hua Hin train station and Maruekhathaiyawan Palace, to name a few examples – the designers worked to 'unfold the structure' of these buildings and translate them into a new architecture that contains the old. In particular, the concept of designing around mass and void, set them to work to create a generous open space at the heart of the restaurant. On one side of the building's gabled roof, a large skylight lets natural light flow into the window-wrapped kitchen, visible from the retail floor, where the chocolate is made. The creamy white and blond wood of surfaces and bronze detailing of ductwork and pendant lamps frame an airy, bright space. Sapphire-hued upholstery recalls Benjarong, the painted Royal Porcelain of Thailand, while a graphical toilet wallpaper references a bygone imperial era. Through interior decor and reference to national visual arts and culture, the store narrates 'the long legend' of Hua Hin.