Hotel Bocage, exclusive minimalism in Thailand’s hip Hua Hin

What is it? A boutique hotel located on the top floor of trendier-than-thou Seenspace Hua Hin, which bills itself as “Thailand’s first community beachfront mall”. The mall is an open-air, neo-brutalist concrete construction that would look dreary under an overcast sky: fortunately, Hua Hin – the royal resort city about 2.5 hours from Bangkok – sees plenty of sun.

A hotel in a shopping mall? Yuck. Don’t worry about that. Hotel Bocage is the pet project of Thai starchitect Duangrit Bunnag, who’s also behind fellow Design Hotels the Alila Cha Am, the Naka Phuket and Bangkok’s top hipster hangout, the Jam Factory. There’s plenty of pedigree here.

So it’s a beachfront resort? Nope. When we say boutique, we mean it: the Bocage has a grand total of just six rooms, ranging from a standard 40 square metres to an 80 square metre suite – meaning you’re unlikely to bump into any other residents, let alone share a lift with them. It’s the opposite of Hua Hin’s crowded beach resorts: a dose of secluded, minimalist privacy.

What does it look like? Bocage has been torn straight from a sci-fi flick, with rooms that are masterclasses in clean, simple minimalism – a riot of greys, if grey were a colour that was prone to social unrest. Pretty much the only spot of colour in the whole room is the red dot on the rubbish bin. All-Italian furnishings from Living Divani and Porro lend a refined but muted air. The aesthetic has a measurable effect: instead of exploding your luggage all over the room, you’ll find yourself folding and squaring up your belongings so as not to disturb those clean, calm lines.