Seafood restaurant design at Bangsaen beach - white steel beach club pavilion on the sand

Seafood Club Bangsaen

Seafood restaurant design at Bangsaen beach - white steel pavilion on the sand with a rooftop terrace

Seafood restaurant design and architecture for a 600 sq m beach club on the sand at Bangsaen, Chonburi.

The site is a beach, not a shophouse, so the building had to earn its place on the sand rather than sit on it. We designed a light white frame that lifts off the ground, opens completely to the sea breeze and carries a shaded roof terrace above. Everything inside follows the same rule: pale, salt-resistant, and washable. The colour comes from the sea, the sunset and a lot of neon.

Project facts

  • Location — Bangsaen, Chonburi
  • Typology — Restaurant and bar
  • Scope — Architecture and interior design
  • Area — 600 sq m
  • Completed — 2019
  • Client — Seafood Club
  • Images — Gratitude Design
Main dining hall of the Bangsaen seafood club with white parasol pendants and a sea-blue terrazzo floor
The main hall is one uninterrupted room so the sea is visible from every table. Oversized white parasol pendants sit low enough to give each group a sense of enclosure without blocking the view.
Pink neon flamingo wall and curved banquette beside the bar at Seafood Club Bangsaen
A single curved banquette wraps the pink wall and does the work of twenty loose chairs, which matters on a floor that has to be swept clear of sand several times a day.
Round island bar with life-ring swing seats seen through the glazed frontage of the beach club
The island bar is round so staff can serve in every direction at once. The seats are life rings hung on rope, chosen because they can be hosed down and replaced for the price of a cushion.
Live band stage under a thatched soffit with terrazzo floor poured to look like water on sand
The terrazzo is poured in two colours and shaped like a wave running up the beach, so the floor tells you where the stage ends and the dining area begins without a step or a rail.
Open seafood grill counter under a thatched pergola on the sand
The grill is pulled outside and put on a timber deck under its own thatch, which keeps smoke and heat out of the dining room and turns the cooking into the entertainment.
Circular thatched beach bar with rope swing seats and a vintage camper van bar on the sand
A second bar sits directly on the sand under a thatched cone, with a converted camper as an overflow service point for busy nights. Neither needs a building permit or a slab.
Rooftop terrace with rope net shade panels, beanbags and timber tables facing the sea
The roof terrace is shaded by rope netting rather than a solid canopy, so it stays cool in the afternoon while still letting the sky through at sunset.
Private dining room with a whale mural, life-ring pendants and a long communal table
The private room takes the same materials in a darker key. Life rings become pendant shades over one long table, which suits the way large Thai family groups actually eat.

Seafood restaurant design on the Thai coast

Seafood restaurant design on a beach is a different discipline from designing a restaurant in the city. Salt air, blown sand, monsoon rain and a licence that usually depends on a lightweight structure all shape the plan before a single finish is chosen. Our starting point at Bangsaen was to accept the beach rather than defend against it.

That decision drove the structure. A slim white steel frame spans the dining hall so the sea elevation could be almost entirely glass and folding panels, and the upper floor is set back to give the ground floor a deep shaded verandah. Nothing structural touches the sand except slender columns and a timber deck that can be lifted and relaid.

Materials were selected for the wash-down cycle rather than the photograph. Terrazzo runs through the ground floor because sand does not scratch it and a hose cleans it. Tiled counters replace timber at every wet point. Rope, rattan and thatch appear where they can be replaced cheaply after a season, which is the honest way to use natural materials in a coastal building.

Zoning gives the venue three different moods on one site. The air-conditioned hall works for lunch with families, the covered terrace and stage handle the evening crowd, and the bar on the sand takes over after dark. Each zone has its own bar and its own service route, so one area can close without shutting the rest of the club down.

Lighting was designed for two conditions only: bright daylight bouncing off the water, and night. In daylight the room relies on shade and reflection rather than fittings. After dark, neon script, warm rattan pendants and a lit bar front do the work, so the club reads from the beach as a single glowing object.

The result is a venue that behaves like a beach club and reads like a restaurant, with a kitchen and a service plan that can carry six hundred square metres of covers on a holiday weekend.

Planning a restaurant, bar or beach club in Thailand? Talk to Gratitude Design about your site.

Related work

More restaurant and bar interior design from the studio: Kilik Social Club and CRU Wine Bar Chidlom. The full record is on the portfolio, and the studio’s approach to restaurant and bar interior design is set out under restaurant and bar interior design.

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