Our Firm

Architecture – Interior design – 3D Digital Design – Landscaping - Structural & MEP Engineering - Project Management

In a Few Lines

The architectural and urban regulations context in Laos follows the development of the country as well as the life standards of its population, endowing the public administration respectively in developing urban centers with economical public facilities and in developing habitat that is most of the time self-built with local material supply (cement, brick, wood, steel sheets).

One should know that the construction permit concept in Laos is recent since it has been reinstated in 1994 only, in order to allow the public administration mainly a safety control of buildings structural works, as the projects execution is mainly carried out by self-taught manpower, consequence of the vocational courses lack in building sector in the country.

For 10 years, we have witnessed a huge acceleration of the urban centers transformation that reflects the weakness of the regulations system, added to the complexity of coordination between the public and private international projects owners who implement their development strategies of which cultural differences bring a real divergence of vision about urban evolution in Lao PDR.

As the urban and architectural regulations system is succinct, we offer the projects owners to develop their projects according to international standards and norms (EU & US) to achieve better standards of the constructions in terms of security, thermo-insulation, soundproofing, ventilation, and access for disabled people.
Our architects and engineers give preference to local materials supply with technical solutions which require simple implementation, figuring the quality level of the local workforce, and thus controlling the construction and the maintenance costs of projects.

The years long studies and research on the history of civilizations, urban development and traditional architecture, prior to the company launching, and the current mission of François Greck as Adviser for the National Department of Habitat and Town Planning allow us to combine a valuable knowledge of the strategies of urban development in the Laotian public sector, with a relevant analysis of the sociocultural environment of our projects, for the integration of an architecture in tune with the present context in Lao PDR.

Design and realization of our projects

For more than 20 years, our firm has been realizing projects in various sectors:
–   Public facilities for national and international administrations established in Lao PDR
–    Educational buildings, specific training centers, health care projects, funded by multilateral cooperation projects
–   Luxury hospitality projects funded by international hotels groups
–   Private projects, banks, housing and office buildings, funded by national & international real-estate investors

Our role as architects includes in particular two critical points defining our approach in the concept and design of projects:
. The first one is the geographic integration of the project in the site, which requires the creation of a coherent articulation, through the design, between respectively the scale and the functionality of the building with the canvas of the surrounding urban fabric and its interrelations with the sociocultural context of the site.
. The second one is the esthetical integration of the project in the environment, for which we pursue, throughout the making of models and the generation of 3D design, a balance between the shape and the materials we use, with those of the natural and urban surroundings.

The key to successfully develop and implement a well-built economical project as an architect in Laos is on one hand the awareness about the level of vocational training in the construction sector, which questions the extensive use of prefabricated materials and equipments requiring their shipping to Lao PDR, and on the other hand the import of a skilled workforce to install them.

To prevent the additional costs generated by those two parameters, our long experience in Asia and especially in Lao PDR gives us a valuable knowledge of craftsmen networks and communities which endows us with a specific advice to bring together the best actors valuing local supply of materials of quality and relying on the ethics of craftsmen which favor materials saving to build well.

The awareness of projects owners about this process in the execution of their projects enables us to help strengthen and develop the local know-how and their transfer to the next generations, through our projects achievements.

An architect in Lao PDR becomes, beyond project designer and coordinator of the building professionals, a craftsman who must definitely expand his expertise to the fields of woodwork, ironworks and other trades of arts, to conceive in details executive plans all works usually handled by artisans or construction professionals in Western countries.

These 20 years in the practice of architecture in these professional circumstances in Lao PDR endow our company with the proficiency in design into the details of all kinds of works implementation.

This know-how gave us the ability:

01To access the niche market of international luxury hospitality which requires excellence-based and custom-built constructions and to weave a network with exceptional artisans in the whole South-Asia area.

02To provide all our projects with very specific detailed construction designs and fabrication designs for implementation giving the possibility to the local construction companies deprived from this expertise to realize ours projects.

03To built long term relationships with international groups in the field of luxury hospitality as for the Orient Express Hotels Group, Trains & Cruises, which recently became the Belmond Group, for which we are “key contractor” for the South East Asia region since 2006.

Ateliers de la Peninsule architects won several national and international architecture design competitions in France, Laos and Thailand by creating architecture design always trying to associate the client’s will in term of his organization or brand image visibility considering the cultural environment where the project is planed to be developed.

Architecture design competitions

International Architecture Design Competition Winner

– 2009-10: The Luang Say Residence Colonial style 24 rooms hotel project in Luang Prabang
– 2010-11: Banque Franco-Lao Limited (BFL), bank head office, Vientiane
– 2005-07: UNDP head office in Laos, Vientiane
– 2005: European Union Delegation head office in Laos
– 2000: Robert Wan, private house concept design (1000 Sqm) white pearl company Ko Mai Si, Thailand

International Architecture Design Competition

– 2001: Ko Yao Residence luxury villas (10 villas 500m² each) real estate concept design, Ko Yao island Thailand

Architecture Design Competition among finalists

– 2012: International French School “Josue Hoffet” National
– 1995: Lao P.D.R. Prime Minister Office in Vientiane National Architecture

Architecture Design Competition

– 2009: Pak Tai 30 luxury villas real estate development, Phuket, Thailand
– 2005: Brunei Embassy, Vientiane

Ateliers de la Peninsule Lao architect team faced a high turn over for years until the firm changed its employment policy by promoting training and improving employment condition which result makes our Lao architects team working within the company for more than seven years now. Our team is trained to provide quality design document by having several years of international standards project implementation and by collaborating with Ateliers de la Peninsule international architects who are day to day training them. Besides that, every year the company hosts some students in architecture as trainees, both from Lao PDR and from foreign countries, which brings a dynamic to the team.