Many who experience landscape architect Wannaporn Pui Phornprapha’s projects may never notice her creative fingerprints. Stone paths, lush foliage, and a sense of harmony are the major takeaways. But this seemingly serendipitous symphony of nature, architecture, and design is orchestrated. The founder and managing director of Bangkok-based P Landscape is a true master of her craft, understanding that the best spaces are the ones that appear effortless.
One of P Landscape’s latest projects is Hong Kong’s Victoria Dockside, where she collaborated with New World Development on green walls, gardens, and pools for Rosewood’s flagship hotel, K11 Musea luxury shopping mall, and K11 Artus serviced apartments. “Each area was done in a fashion that articulates the spirit of Hong Kong flawlessly—a true explorers’ cultural collection captured within the boundless view of Victoria Harbour,” Phornprapha notes.
K11 Musea in Hong Kong includes the rooftop Nature Discovery Park, home to an urban park, education center, and floating farm
“Climate change awareness and food security have become special interests for our practice,” she adds. For example, P Landscape revived the post-tsunami barren land back to abundance for Rosewood Phuket. It revisited Six Senses Samui, its first hospitality project in Thailand, to create a self-sustaining concept that reduces waste and extends the use of existing resources. Other projects such as Thailand’s Phulay Bay, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, addresses the ephemeral nature of landscapes through rake reliefs in its sand garden, while the shape of W Bangkok’s swimming pool is reminiscent of flowers.
Phornprapha credits Harvard’s Graduate School of Design’s (GSD) multidisciplinary approach for her pursuit of landscape architecture. “The integration of art, culture, ecology, social studies, and economy has the ability to truly connect humans with nature,” she says. “Being at the GSD fostered the process of looking at things critically and seeing the connections and the influences design elements, people, and culture have on each other. While I consider myself a landscape architect, on some occasions, we take on small architectural designs that integrate into the landscape, such as glass houses and gazebos.”
In collaboration with PAA, openwork incisions on the exterior of the Museum of Contemporary Art Bangkok create playful shadows in the atrium
Phornprapha finds inspiration in nature’s art, including patterns found in seashells, sand dunes, and honeycomb. “It is crucial that I have access to what inspires me and my team at work,” she explains. “This functions as a personal library, as well as a reminder of our design values: art, science, botany, and natural phenomena. I also appreciate connections between people and nature in other forms of media, such as magazines, fashion, food, and advertisements.”
As an avid reader, she also loves collecting books, and is currently obsessing over Tristan Gooley’s How to Read Water. “Being in a creative field, it is important to keep minds active and exposed to new things,” Phornprapha says. “My way is through reading and visual arts—anything from paintings to sculpture to flower arrangements and Thai fragrant plants. They share the charm of functional organic structures with sensual forms. Collecting art is like keeping a diary. Each is representative for me of specific points in my life journey from many places around the world. Art can be something simple—as long as it touches the heart. [It helps me understand] my inner self a little better and, in turn, understand other people more.”
Indeed, Phornprapha’s work represents her values and personality but it also has an individual touch. “We curate experiences based on our expertise,” she explains, “requiring a deep understanding of materials. We then relate them to the unique identity that each project possesses.”
BAR Studio and P Lanscape were inspired by the classic Chinese garden and traditional courtyard house for its design of the Rosewood Beijing
This article originally appeared in HD’s November 2021 issue.
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