In the heart of old Bangkok, a sculptural hostel bends wood, light, and tradition into a stay unlike anywhere else. VMA Design Studio’s Double B Hostel is making waves, literally!
Hidden behind a narrow alleyway in Bangkok’s storied Sao Chingcha district, the Double B Hostel isn’t your average backpacker crash pad, it’s a full-on design experience.
Conceptualized and realized by the Bangkok-based VMA Design Studio, this 27-room boutique hostel is a love letter to local craft and contemporary architecture. Equal parts urban sanctuary and art installation, it reimagines the local streetscape into a place where Gen Z travellers, digital nomads and design lovers come to stay, snap and stay inspired.
Wood, Waves & Wanderlust
At first glance, it’s the flowing wooden façade that grabs your attention, ribbons of timber rising and curving like sculpted waves across both the exterior and interior courtyard. But this isn’t just aesthetics for the ’gram. Every inch of this undulating skin speaks to a deeper narrative: a fusion of computational design and hand-hewn craftsmanship, connecting global design thinking with Bangkok’s centuries-old artisan traditions.
What makes Double B truly standout is its mastery of natural light and ventilation, especially in one of the city’s densest historic quarters. VMA took a seemingly impossible site, tight street frontage, dark internal volumes, and cracked it open with an internal courtyard topped with a glass roof. The result – pockets of sunlight piercing deep into the hostel’s core, flanked by handcrafted wooden balconies and garden nooks that blend inside with outside. It’s breathable, bright, and buzzing with good energy.
Crafted Culture Meets Contemporary Cool
The materials tell another story. Inside, reclaimed timber from an old warehouse on the site was brought back to life across corridor ceilings and internal cladding. Outside, composite wooden rods weatherproofed to handle Bangkok’s heat and humidity form the sinuous shell. The making process? Think basic moulds, hot air bending and hands-on detailing by local craftsmen using traditional tools, making this sculptural complexity not just beautiful, but buildable.
Then there are the rooms. Each one is bathed in daylight through pocket lightboxes, tiny glass balconies outfitted with greenery that act as light wells and private breathing zones. They offer a peek of the outside world while shielding guests from the neighbouring walls of Old Bangkok. These clever, compact gestures make the interior feel like a leafy urban garden, rather than a boxed hostel.
The design is so bold it’s already scooped up accolades across Asia and beyond. But beyond the metal and glass, what makes Double B iconic is its soul, the way it roots design innovation in local stories and hands.
As VMA’s founder, Vichayuth Meenaphant, puts it: “The flowing wooden façade is more than just an architectural exploration, it’s a bridge between tradition and innovation.”
Whether you’re a designer looking for a dose of form-meets-function brilliance or a wanderer chasing something meaningful beyond Bangkok’s typical tourist trail, Double B Hostel is your spot. It’s part retreat, part gallery, part cultural reboot, and 100% photogenic.
