The design of the workshop / house was influenced by the Sala/Waterhouse we built in one of our pools, the Waterhouse has a little Japanese flavour to it though the second level of roof is designed so that we can fit water tanks in, it isn't supposed to be just decorative.
The architect followed our design with some suggested modifications. The most important was to have some floor to ceiling wall space between the windows in the workshop. My modification was to change his over slung crane to an under slung design.
Maybe you didn't notice that there is a crane in the workshop
It's there because SWMBO doesn't like being asked to help and a full 20mm MDF or Thai plywood sheet is too heave to move without some kind of help. I also would like a BIGWOOD BIGWOOD_MJ_344B 16“ or MJ-345 20” bandsaw and the crane will make moving tools quite easy.
These are some of the drawings
Before starting we needed to follow the local traditions so there was a ceremony at the local Buddha statue asking the Buddha for good luck, the lottery number just after the ceremony was 11 and that's the scheduled official start day, so maybe it worked. It included a pigs head that in true frugal Thai style was then eaten by SWMBO and friends.
Then there was a small ceremony on the building area asking the land god to move and let us build.
We then did a soil bearing test to establish the sizes needed for the footings.
As you may appreciate this procedure is a little more simple than getting planning permission, it isn't needed in our village as we are so far from town.