Dramatic Condo Decks

Architects in charge of designing condos often struggle with ways to elegantly offer the inhabitants access to outdoor space, but Somdoon Archtects has come up with a clever solution to the problem. As 'The Deck,' the architecture studio's latest project in Phuket, Thailand, shows, condos need not be precluded from having patios of their own.

Somdoon Architects' design subverts the typical thinking around balconies. Usually, balconies are relatively long and narrow, giving occupants space along the edge of the building. In the case of The Deck, that formula is reversed: the balconies extend outward from the wall of the building, which in turn gives each tenant access to their own patios. Because of this outward shape, the balconies also offer a better view of the Adriatic Sea off in the distance.