THE CHEDI Chiang Mai is an 84 room hotel, spa and restaurant located in the centre of Chiang Mai on the banks of the Mae Ping River.
The site of the hotel is the compound of the former British Consulate in Chiang Mai, within which the main Consulate building, dating from the 1920’s, has been retained and integrated within the hotel design.
The design intention of the scheme was to combine a city location with the atmosphere of a resort hotel, together with the integration of the existing colonial house, site and hotel using a contemporary interpretation of traditional Thai materials.
The lobby of the hotel is centred on the existing house, set in a landscaped court with a large reflection pool separating the new and old buildings. The swimming pool, spa and restaurant are located at the front of the site facing the Mae Ping River and are reached from a ground level covered walkway that extends from the hotel lobby to a river side pier. The locations of each of the buildings form a series of large internal courtyards within the site, each of different character.
The hotel building consists of guest rooms on four storeys in an “L” shape formed around a large courtyard and facing towards the river. The external façade of the rooms, facing the courtyard are lined with teak panels in a pattern suggestive of the style found in traditional Thai construction. The large overhanging roof of the hotel acts as weather protection for the guest room balconies and directs rainwater into the courtyard area.
The 52 guest rooms and 32 The Chedi Club Suites are reached from shaded external corridors that run around the street and side of the hotel. The façade facing the street consists of a dense vertical timber screen allowing for both privacy and weather protection. The screen and corridor form a buffer zone from the outside environment and creates privacy for the guest rooms which face towards the landscaped courtyard areas and towards the river.
The entrance to each room is through an external private courtyard, which allows light into the guest rooms and represents Asian traditional life style.
Within the guest rooms dark timber floors, hand-made red wall tiles, terrazzo plinths together with teak and rattan furniture give a sense of traditional Thai design through the use of local materials in a contemporary form.
Natural light is brought into the bathrooms through translucent glass that faces onto the private courtyard. In each bathroom a sliding screen in front of the free standing bath can be opened-up to the room. All rooms have a large balcony facing towards the garden and river.
Paper and metal light fittings in the rooms and public areas are designed to reflect the traditional paper umbrellas and lanterns found in the North of Thailand around Chiang Mai.