As a hotelier, Phornpinit Phornprapha is something of a rarity in his family. His Siam@Siam Design Hotel and Spa is a dark orange building that stands out against the Bangkok skyline.

Within the business community, the Phornprapha family was once synonymous with Nissan cars and auto parts. Founded as the Siam Motor Group, it once had 45 affiliated companies and was the last fully Thai-owned auto company to be taken over by a multinational.

Despite the Phornprapha family still having top management posts in the company, Nissan Motor of Japan - now partly owned by Renault of France in a bid to strengthen its capital base - has a 75-per-cent majority stake.

Interior designer Kitisak Suthamchok, who has done a lot of work in the hospitality industry, signed a deal with Phornpinit to decorate Siam@Siam on Rama I Road. A budget was set of not more than Bt100 million to transform it into an outstanding hotel.

A few years ago, the veteran designer was asked by Phornpinit to decorate his new house in Sukhumvit Soi 65. Whether a house or hotel, size is much less important than location. With a hotel, the priority is to project an image and market it to lure tourists.

The big question for Kitisak was how to make the hotel distinctive. Its surroundings were not very impressive, but its look would have to make a striking impression on customers.

Kitisak founded his interior-design firm Leo 3 three years ago after leaving a Thai-Singaporean joint-venture designer. In those days, he was involved in designing interiors for such exclusive Bangkok hotels as the Shangri-La and Intercontinental, plus several hotels in Beijing.

Phornpinit, president and CEO of Siam@Siam, dared to have his hotel designed in an eclectic style. It's more than a hip, fashion or boutique style. "It's so much more risky in terms of image, as the hotel looks broad and scared," says Kitisak.

The youngest of 10 siblings, Phornpinit chose to study tourism and hotel management instead of engineering or business administration like his elders.

"I have quite a handful of siblings and thought at the time that since they were going to work for the Siam Motor Group, I didn't want to be in the same business with them," he says.

Instead of the usual destinations such as Britain or the United States, Phornpinit attended boarding school and university in Japan. "All my brothers and sisters studied in America and the UK. My father thought that it would be good to have a son who could speak Japanese."

Phornpinit first went to the Land of the Rising Sun when he was 16. He spent two years learning Japanese and another three in public school before enrolling in the prestigious Rikkyo, or St Paul's University, in Tokyo.

"I happened to have a high-enough score to enter its Tourism College, but I wasn't at all a studious student," he recalls, downplaying his achievement. While he might not have been a bookworm, the young Phornpinit was once a water-ski champion in Japan.

In Japan, before heading off to boarding school, Phornpinit lived with a Japanese host family. "It was a good way to learn about a new culture in depth," he says. Quick to assimilate, in no time he was even dreaming in Japanese.

Japanese cultural values have seeped into Phornpinit's blood. The traits he admires in the Japanese are orderliness, honesty, discipline and respect not just for elders, but also for one's subordinates.

Not surprisingly, Siam@Siam is not confined to a hotel-style format. It adopts a mix-and-match style with a variety of decorations, including influences from Japanese, Thai and Chinese cultures. Other styles could be summed up as industrial, broad and rough textures, Oriental and West-meets-East.

"Decorating the hotel in the fashion of a home is one of the key ideas," Kitisak says. He put the check-in lobby on the 11th floor, as he wanted a fun area, the Party House Pub and Restaurant, on the ground floor. When guests come to check in, they can see the fun area. Spa services are on the 10th floor.

Designed under the limitations of its location, Siam@Siam was built in the same area as the Phornprapha family's oldest office building.

Relaxation and mystery are the key features of the hotel's character. The main colour of orange contrasts not only with the blue sky, but also with the grey of its non-stucco concrete walls. Each of the 200 guestrooms is harmonised by abstract paintings in frames amid dimming lights.

"Initially, many of us were afraid that Siam@Siam would not be workable, but I believe it will be," Kitisak says with confidence. "Every guest has liked it since it soft-opened its services late last year."

He believes Siam@Siam has proved that a lavish design is not necessary for a hotel to succeed. It is now enjoying an occupancy rate of about 70 per cent.

Kitisak believes interior design should be a blend of customers' needs and a recognition that it must be saleable. Designers should not focus only on creating masterpieces - they need a business brain, as well.

Ki Nan Tsui,

Sasithorn Ongdee

The Nation