Introduction

Sher Maker is an architectural design studio founded by Patcharada Inplang and Thongchai Chansamak in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Drawing from vernacular ecological knowledge in Northern Thailand and approaches rooted in local architectural methodologies, their work explores how architectural forms emerge through local materials, technologies, climates, and ways of living. Approaching architecture not only as physical structure but also as atmosphere, occupation, and everyday experience, the studio develops its practice through material experimentation, workshop-based research, and collaborative forms of making with craftsmen and builders, allowing local resources and folk building techniques to inform the design process itself.

Their studio reflects this approach. Built on a vacant site once occupied by large acacia trees, the workspace was conceived as an open-ended architectural experiment rather than a fixed design object. Organized beneath a simple gable roof, it accommodates material testing, meetings, shared meals, and everyday living, while workshop areas beneath the eaves blur the boundaries between interior and exterior. Constructed from reclaimed wooden and steel frames, the building embraces limitation and adaptation as part of its architectural language, while locally sourced materials integrate the structure gently into its surrounding site.

Rather than beginning from a predetermined architectural image, the studio emerged gradually through construction, use, and lived experience, embodying Shermaker’s attentiveness to environment, material process, and the relation between building and living.