The Sukhothai Bangkok

Behind a long wall on South Sathorn Road, brick stupas rise out of still water and the noise of one of Bangkok's busiest roads falls away within a few steps. The Sukhothai Bangkok opened here in 1991. It took its name and much of its visual language from Sukhothai, the kingdom founded in the thirteenth century that Thais regard as the cradle of their art and their alphabet. The hotel is organised around courtyards, colonnades and reflecting pools rather than one grand lobby, and that calm is the reason its regulars keep returning.

History

Sathorn was already a road of embassies and company headquarters when the project took shape in the late 1980s. The owners gave a large share of the plot to gardens, an unusual choice so close to the business district, and the hotel opened in 1991 with about six acres of landscaped grounds. The design went to the Australian architect Kerry Hill and the American designer Ed Tuttle. Both men later became closely linked with Aman and with a generation of Asian hotels that preferred restraint to display. A residential tower, The Sukhothai Residences, was later built on neighbouring land, while the hotel kept its low buildings and its walled gardens.

Architecture and design

Hill and Tuttle looked to the sculpture and brickwork of the Sukhothai period, not to the gilded roofs of later Bangkok temples. The palette is terracotta, teak, bronze and pale stone. Long colonnades frame the courtyards, stupa forms stand in shallow pools, and corridors open onto water and planting at regular intervals. Celadon, the green-glazed stoneware once fired in the kilns of the old kingdom, gives its name to the Thai restaurant and its colour to many details. Ornament is used sparingly. Proportion, shadow and water carry the design, and the views across the courtyards change with the light through the day.

Rooms and suites

Rooms follow the same vocabulary of teak, silk and muted colours. Bathrooms are generous, and many rooms look down onto the pools and the stupas or out over the Sathorn skyline. Suites add separate sitting rooms and suit longer stays, families and guests who entertain in their rooms.

Dining

Celadon is the restaurant most visitors know. Its Thai kitchen serves diners in pavilions set among lotus ponds, and a terrace table at dusk is one of the classic Bangkok dinners. Weekend tables are worth booking ahead, when residents fill the terrace. La Scala serves Italian cooking in a more formal room. Colonnade hosts a Sunday brunch that has been a fixture for Bangkok families and expatriates for many years. The Lobby serves afternoon tea and a chocolate buffet, and Zuk Bar handles cocktails and lighter plates.

Wellness

Spa Botanica sits within the gardens and combines Thai techniques with Western treatments. The outdoor pool is framed by colonnades and trees, and a fitness centre completes the facilities.

Weddings and events

The hotel hosts Thai and international weddings, banquets and corporate functions, with a ballroom and a set of smaller function rooms. Courtyards and lawns are used for ceremonies and receptions when the weather allows. The Sathorn address, among embassies and head offices, makes it a regular choice for board meetings and corporate dinners.

Location

For a luxury hotel in Bangkok, the position is unusually practical. Lumphini MRT station, at the junction of Sathorn and Rama IV roads, is close by, and Lumpini Park lies just beyond it. The BTS Silom line can be picked up at Sala Daeng or Chong Nonsi, and the restaurants of Silom are a short taxi ride away. Suvarnabhumi Airport is about 30 kilometres east; the drive takes anything between 40 minutes and well over an hour, depending on traffic.