Pachapasa Studio turns Bangkok house into ARVIE restaurant with lantern-like pavilion and recycled brick bar

Bangkok’s Yannawa district now hosts ARVIE, a restaurant carved from a former house by local practice Pachapasa Studio. Rather than demolishing the original structure, the team retained its volume, removed internal partitions to create a continuous dining hall, and introduced a new pavilion across the courtyard. The bar, built from red glazed bricks made with compressed demolition waste, anchors the interior and gives the project a distinct material narrative.

The project received its first public coverage through Designboom, which published project images and details submitted by the studio.

Preserving the house, opening the plan

The existing house, located in a residential area of Yannawa, was originally a single-family dwelling with a garden. Pachapasa Studio kept the building’s footprint and stripped away interior walls to form one long dining room. The layout now flows from the entrance through to the bar and dining area, with the garden visible through large openings.

A central bar, built from red glazed bricks, organizes the space and frames the preparation of food. The bricks were developed with a local craftsman and produced using debris from demolition sites, turning waste into a primary architectural element. The same material appears in the flooring, where handmade bricks from a family-owned manufacturer in Ang Thong province add texture and warmth.

New pavilion as flexible volume

Across the courtyard, a new pavilion introduces a second architectural volume. The structure is enclosed by a perforated envelope that allows light to pass through at night, giving it a lantern-like appearance. This glow extends the restaurant’s visual presence into the garden after dark.

Inside, the pavilion can be configured in multiple ways: as one large room for up to 16 guests, as two separate rooms for eight each, or fully opened toward the garden to serve as a stage for outdoor events. The flexible design allows the relationship between interior and exterior to shift according to different uses, from private dining to larger gatherings.

Local materials and craft

The material palette is consistent throughout the project. In addition to the recycled brick bar and Ang Thong brick flooring, the interior features woven papyrus mats, introducing traditional Thai craft into a contemporary hospitality setting. The studio selected materials that connect the project to local production methods rather than reproducing historic Thai forms.

Pachapasa Studio, led by Pasathorn Srichaiyongphanich and Pacharamon Danwachira, designed the project to activate previously underused areas of the site. The retained house, new pavilion, and courtyard work together as a spatial framework that links existing architecture with new functions.

Key facts

Why this matters for architecture readers

The project demonstrates how adaptive reuse can work at the scale of a single house, not only preserving existing fabric but also introducing new spatial possibilities and material innovation. The use of compressed demolition waste for the bar’s glazed bricks offers a replicable example of circular construction in a hospitality context. The flexible pavilion, combined with the retained house, creates a layered relationship between indoor and outdoor dining that responds to changing needs. For designers and architects working on similar small-scale conversions, ARVIE provides a case study in balancing preservation, new construction, and local material sourcing.

Source: Designboom – https://www.designboom.com/architecture/lantern-pavilion-recycled-brick-bar-bangkok-house-arvie-restaurant-pachapasa-studio/