SINCE 1977
Rebuilding on the Foundation of Our Legacy
For forty-nine years, the neighborhood grew up around this corner while we stayed the same. In 2026, we took the building down to its pillars and put it back together in earth, by hand.
A cornerstone is the one part of a building you never replace.
Muang Phol has held this corner for forty-nine years, the one constant while the neighborhood grew up around it. That's where our name comes from.
In 2026, we became the one part that changed, stripped down to the pillars and rebuilt in earth.
WHERE THE NAME COMES FROM
The Concept of a Cornerstone
Traditionally, it's the first stone laid, the one the rest of the building is measured against. Strength, stability, a starting point.
For Muang Phol, that idea has always been more than decoration. It's where our name and our way of working both begin, and in 2026 it stopped being a metaphor.
1977 - 2026
Down to the Pillars
Muang Phol opens as the first high-rise in Siam
The hotel is built as the first high-rise building in the Siam area. The corner is chosen long before the rest of the city arrives at it.
1977
Bangkok grows up around the corner
MBK opens in 1985, the BTS Skytrain in 1999 with National Stadium among its first twenty-three stations, Siam Paragon in 2005 and the BACC in 2008. The hotel does not move. The centre of the city moves to it.
1985-2008
It is rebuilt, and finished in earth
Fifty-six rooms, the corridors and the lobby are skimmed by hand in 100% natural clay plaster; the bathrooms are laid in brick pressed from industrial waste. Both choices are why this building feels the way it does.
2024-2026
A new team opens the doors
Muang Phol reopens under new management, forty-nine years after it first opened on this corner. Same address. New hotel.
Oct 2026
WHAT THE BUILDING IS MADE OF
Two Materials, Both of Them Earth
Most hotel interiors are paint on plasterboard. Ours are not. The rebuild is finished in two materials chosen for what they actually are - a clay skimming plaster that is pure soil in its own color, and a decorative brick pressed from waste that other industries had finished with.
Both are made in Thailand. Both are certified. Both are the reason the walls here have a depth a paint tin cannot produce.
MATERIAL 01
Clay Skimming Plaster
ดินฉาบ · La Terre FiNN & FiNN Ext.
The lobby wall is one continuous clay surface, trowelled by hand - no sheet joints, no repeat.
A premium clay skimming plaster composed of 100% pure natural clay in its inherent color, with no added synthetic pigments. The terracotta you see is not a paint match - it is the color the soil already was.
It goes on by hand, which is why no two walls in this building are identical and why the light moves across them the way it does. It is breathable rather than sealed, and it can be repaired in place: mist the mark with water, smooth it with a finger, and the wall closes over itself.
100% pure natural clay, inherent colour
No synthetic pigments or chemical colorants. Binders and additives are food-grade and naturally derived.
COMPOSITION
VOC-free
No chemical solvents — which matters in a sealed hotel room, where a newly painted wall is usually something you can smell for weeks.
EMISSIONS
SURFACE
Breathable, tactile, matte
Applied wet and worked by hand; the texture is a function of the craftsman, not a printed pattern.
In place, with water
Damage is re-wetted and smoothed rather than patched and repainted — a real advantage across a fifty-six-room operating life.
REPAIR
Guest-room walls, corridors, lobby
Including the curved lobby wall, which runs as a single unbroken surface.
WHERE YOU SEE IT
Made by La Terre S.A. - บริษัท ลาแตร์ จำกัด
Established in 2009 in Nonthaburi, and pioneers of earth construction in Thailand. The practice specialises in rammed-earth architecture, with specialist training at CRAterre in France and accredited consultant status. Their finishing plaster carries a Material ConneXion certificate awarded in 2009 — reproduced below. laterre-sa.com
MATERIAL 02
Decorative Brick
อิฐตกแต่ง · loqa - อิฐโลกา
Loqa - โลกา, meaning earth - presses brick and tile from 85-95% waste material collected from other industries: ceramics, glass and fly ash, taken from partners close enough that moving it does not undo the saving.
The flecks and tonal shifts in the bathroom brick are that waste, left where you can see it. It is the most literal surface in the building - you can read what it was made from by looking at it.
The bathroom column - brick pressed from industrial waste, with the speckle and tonal shift left visible rather than glazed over.
85–95% industrial waste
No synthetic pigments or chemical colorants. Binders and additives are food-grade and naturally derived.
COMPOSITION
Thailand
By a team carrying over forty years of experience in brick and refractory materials.
MADE IN
Fired and unfired
The fired line suits interior and some exterior use; the unfired line is primarily interior.
LINES
Over 400 tons of waste
More than 1,000,000 tiles and bricks given a second life between May 2022 and October 2025, across all of Loqa's work.
DIVERTED TO DATE
Guest bathrooms
Wrapping the shower and vanity column, set against stone and clay plaster.
WHERE YOU SEE IT
Made by loqa - โลกา
A Thai circular-materials company working with architects and developers on tile and brick made entirely from non-virgin material. Their full certification record is set out below. loqa.co
WHY ANY OF THIS MATTERS
What Earth Does That Paint Doesn't
A new room that doesn't smell new
The plaster is VOC-free and solvent-free. A freshly finished room in a new hotel usually announces itself for weeks. This one doesn't.
Surfaces that are properly matte
Clay absorbs light rather than bouncing it back. It is why the rooms photograph warm, and why they read as calm at night rather than merely dim.
A building that ages instead of chipping
Marks in clay are re-wetted and smoothed, not painted over. Ten years from now these walls will have been repaired, not resurfaced.
MUANG PHOL IN NUMBERS
What the Rebuild Adds Up To
2026
REBUILT & REOPENED
Stripped to the structural pillars and built again, under new management.
56
ROOMS, ALL NEW
Across five types, none of them smaller than 23 square metres.
100%
NATURAL CLAY WALLS
Pure soil in its own colour, applied by hand. No synthetic pigment, no solvent.
85-95%
UPCYCLED BRICK
The bathroom brick is pressed almost entirely from other industries' waste.