InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping – The Mae Ping Room

“Cave-like curved rooms”… why do they create echoes so easily? And how to solve it without compromising design?

In premium hotel design, spaces serve not only to be “beautiful” but must create an “experience”. Especially exhibition spaces or multi-purpose rooms that must accommodate speech, performances, and various activities. However, when the room's geometry is designed with curves, the ensuing problems areechoes and sound wave concentration (Resonance) that make the interior sound “boomy” and “unclear”.

This is the challenge of the project InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping – The Mae Ping Room

The Origin of the Challenge: When “Cave-like” Design Becomes an Acoustic Challenge

The Mae Ping room is designed like a “tortoise-shell cave”, with curves spanning both the ceiling and surrounding areas. This design creates a striking atmosphere, offering an enveloping and unique feel.

However, acoustically,such continuous curved surfaces can cause

• Sound to bounce back and forth within the room
• Sound waves to concentrate in certain spots (Resonance)
• Echoes that disrupt practical use, making listening unintelligible and turning into unwanted noise

Especially when the space is used as an exhibition or event room

The Challenge: Must be “curved, beautiful, quiet, and feature a smooth ceiling surface”. The design team required materials that could fully meet the requirements of:

• Accommodating the continuous curved geometry of the room

• Being joint-free to preserve the integrity of the design

• Providing excellent sound absorption to reduce echoes and resonance within the room

Additionally,the ceiling had to integrate with other designs in the space, such as:

• Alternating materials with gypsum ceilings

• Painted patterns reflecting “Thai artistic identity”

Which placed further limitations on material selection

Trandar solution: Seamless ceiling supporting both “art” and “sound”

Trandar proposed the solution Trandar Seamless Acoustics, Ultrafine model (smooth surface), which is specially designed to meet complex architectural requirements.

Key highlights of Trandar Seamless Ultrafine ceiling in this project

- Seamless Surface allows the ceiling to flow continuously along the curved contours of the room without being interrupted by panel joints,preserving the architectural integrity of the "curved cave" design.

- Curved Application The system can be truly formed to follow the curved lines of the space,meeting complex 3D geometric designs.

- Sound absorption while maintaining a smooth finish Even with a sleek surface, the internal structure helps reduce reverberation,minimizes echoes, and controls resonance, making interior acoustics clearer and more comfortable.

- Supporting design and art The ceiling surface works seamlessly withpainting and artistic designs, turning the ceiling from merely an "acoustic system" into "an integral part of the spatial artwork".

Result: A space that is both "aesthetic" and "functional"

Once the Seamless Ultrafine system was installed, The Mae Ping room achieved:

• Striking continuous curves resembling exceptional architecture

• A smooth surface supporting Thai art applications

• Acoustic quality perfectly tailored for practical use

Because great silence... often begins with a surface you cannot see working behind the scenes.