CHA-AM, THAILAND - Duangrit Bunnag scans the murky white high-rises that sketch Bangkok's haphazard skyline, despairing of the drab view from his architecture firm's minimalist office.

'The question I am always asked is, which building do you like? I look around and cannot find one building I like. It is a very unfortunate thing.'

While other Asian metropolises such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Beijing boast cutting-edge new buildings recognisable around the world, one would be pushed to name a famous modern building in Bangkok.

Duangrit blames this on what he calls the 'old guard' of Thailand's architecture scene: inward-looking, outdated, afraid to try anything new and acceding to unimaginative clients.

'There are many architects who are talented but they have to fight with the old guard. Maybe in another 10 or 20 years, you will see something good.'

So in the meantime, the modish darling of the industry turns his attention to Thailand's beaches, where his visions of distressed concrete and stone structures melding into their surroundings are being realised with the help of young and daring Thai and foreign developers.

One of his recently completed projects is the Alila Cha-Am resort near the resort town of Hua Hin.

Catering mostly to Asia's hip, young middle class, it boasts geometric blocks of rooms, boxy villas, large open courtyards and dazzling marble surfaces.

A wall of thousands of loose stones lines a reflecting pool, beneath which a spa is bathed in distorted light and the shadows of the rippling water.

'There is a growing trend to attract people with architecture,' says general manager Urs Aebi. 'Thailand has been renowned for good service and nice beaches. Now you have some quite funky places.'

Over at Dune in Hua Hin, a sliver of a hotel with five rooms behind a grey, industrial-style exterior, it is Latin American salsa beats that pump out on the wooden restaurant deck with a glimmering pool lined with metallic tiles.

Likewise, The Library on Samui island, with its cool minimalist white and glass buildings and playful sculptures, have attracted the attention of magazines including Wallpaper, Elle Decor and Harper's Bazaar.

Brian Mertens, co-author of Architecture Of Thailand: A Guide To Traditional And Contemporary Forms, says the country needs more than a boom in chic tourist resorts to fuel a strong architectural culture. 'Thailand has great potential, but architects here want to see a boost in enlightened public- and private-sector patronage of new construction, together with conservation of heritage up through the 1970s,' he says.

Attitudes to architecture will change as a younger generation more open to new ideas asserts itself, he adds. 'Perhaps 50 of the leading 500 Thai corporations and families are commissioning significant architecture. But the numbers will rise as the generation now in their 30s and 40s takes charge.'

And while not expecting a sea change any time soon, Duangrit also remains hopeful. 'I am always optimistic for the future.' --AFP