Inside hotel designer Bill Bensley’s exotic Bangkok home, where whimsy reigns supreme
Overflowing with antiques, artefacts and plants, the ever-changing home of the American architect and his partner, horticulturist Jirachai Rengthong, is a design masterclass
It’s not every day that I have the urge to scream, “Tiger!” But then again it’s not every day that I find myself wandering around the teeming gardens of architect Bill Bensley’s Bangkok home, in the middle of a pandemic.
It is Saturday afternoon and the American-born architect and interior designer of 200-plus resorts and hotels across the globe is shirtless, and spirited. Working from home during the lockdown has filled him with enthusiasm because he’s been more productive in the past few weeks than in the previous six months, he says, adding: “This is the first time in 30 years I haven’t travelled for two weeks out of every month.”
So at a leisurely pace, he and horticulturist Jirachai Rengthong guide Post Magazine virtually around Baan Botanica, their sprawling home designed for alfresco living across three plots of land.
“The spaces are more like outdoor rooms,” Jirachai says. “The garden is many times bigger than the house.”
Labyrinthine even when not viewed through a small screen, the grounds accommodate 12 courtyards and 11 stand-alone structures, including guest rooms, helpers’ quarters and work areas. Twenty-three years ago, after Bensley’s stints in Singapore and Hong Kong, he and Jirachai moved into the main house, a two-storey, three-bedroom, colonial-style dwelling. They’ve been “titivating” ever since, Bensley says.
Little at their home remains the same for long because the buildings and gardens are used as mood boards for the commercial projects of his eponymous atelier: in the main house a column that appears to float, owing to recessed illumination at its base, found its way conceptually into the Anantara hotel in Hua Hin, Thailand.