The Khao Yai National Park in central Thailand has recently gotten a stunner of a hotel courtesy of Bangkok-based Urban Praxis architects. While the rooms are impressive, the real showstopper is the transparent semi-cantilevered pool at the heart of the resort.
Established in 1962, Khao Yai is the first national park located in Thailand. Situated about 200 km (124 miles) north of Bangkok, the park spreads out across over 2,200 square kilometers (about 850 square miles) where its largely evergreen forest serves as a protected habitat for the largest number of animal species in Thailand. While there are numerous hotels welcoming guests to the park, none have a pool quite as spectacular as the Hotel MYS Khao Yai, which opened last year.
Evoking the sky pool from the 2013 Tom Cruise sci-fi flick Oblivion, the transparent acrylic 9-meter-long (about 30 ft-long) pool stretches out from the center of the hotel, forming a watery roof above the reception area.
The front edge of the pool is also transparent, giving guests the sense that they're swimming straight into the heart of the park. The pool's semi-cantilevered design is supported by a pair of elegant swooping beams from beneath. While Urban Praxis designed the entire resort, the pool itself had input from Reynolds Polymer, a structural engineering firm that specializes in aquarium design and other acrylic-based projects.
"The sky acrylic pool with a clear view of the mountain offers the glimpse of being part of nature," says the architects. "As a twist of excitement, guests are swimming in the cantilevered pool structure as if they are swimming into the sky."
The balance of the resort is designed with a Scandinavian aesthetic and features 16 rooms, six villas with private – albeit less grand – heated swimming pools, and one three-bedroom master villa. The rooms follow what the architects term an "elevated ground floor" user experience, meaning that they have the feeling of "small forest cabins" such as those that might be normally accessed from a front door level with the ground.
While it'll take a bit of effort to get to this five-star stunner, for now, you can at least dip your eyes into our gallery or enjoy the following video to get a better look at the pool and balance of the resort. And if you do decide to book, rooms can be had for around US$200 per night, a surprisingly reasonable rate to get to stay at a resort with one of the more stunning pools we've come across.
Sources: Urban Praxis, Archello