A sense of belonging is something that we all strive to achieve, but what does it actually mean? Is it the place where you were born, the language you speak, or perhaps the culture that shaped your earliest memories? For some, belonging is straightforward. For others, it exists somewhere in between, suspended across oceans and borders, never quite settling.
This in-betweenness, this perpetual sense of existing across two worlds, might feel like a burden to some. But for Robert Sukrachand, founder of Pern Baan, that sense of belonging became the foundation of his life's work.
Growing up split between the United States and Thailand, Robert experienced what he describes as "cultural whiplash." Summers in Thailand with his father, the rest of the year in the U.S. with his mother. Two planets. Two entirely different existences that never quite aligned, leaving him unable to fully fit into either.
But there's a curious thing about existing between worlds. You begin to search for ways to connect them. And sometimes, you might just discover that the most profound connections happen not through words. In Robert’s case, it's through the universal language of craft.
A Name That Speaks
The name Pern Baan translates to "neighbours" in Thai. But it's also quite a universal colloquial term, which Robert grew quite fond of. It's used to describe the person living next door, yes, but equally applicable to neighbouring nations, neighbouring cultures, and neighbouring ways of being.
For Robert, Pern Baan is more of a philosophy than it is a business, producing artisan-made lighting and home décor between New York City and Thailand. It’s that neighbouring philosophy and the belief that craftsmanship and design can create global neighbours, bridging gaps that language alone could never cross.
As we continue to peel back the layers behind Pern Baan, we find that there’s another layer to the name, and it's one that speaks to how we all inhabit our spaces. Akin to friends that accompany us in our home, objects with meanings behind them are often anthropomorphic.
They become companions that not only make us feel connected to the physical space around us, but also to the hands that shaped them, the stories they bear, and the cultures they represent. For those who appreciate them, these crafts stand tall in opposition to the churn of fast fashion and the breakneck pace of modern life.
This is what Pern Baan prioritises: stories about crafts, connection, and the people who made them, standing in opposition to the relentless churn of fast fashion and the breakneck pace of modern life.
The Founding Connection
The story of how Pern Baan truly began centres on a village community in Ubon Ratchathani called Ban Pa Ao. Before COVID-19 had forever reshaped the world, Robert had been operating a design studio in Brooklyn, returning to Thailand just once a year for two weeks. It never felt like enough.
He wanted a reason to return more often, something to allow Robert to further anchor his roots much deeper in the Thailand he'd spent his childhood summers exploring. On a road trip through Isaan, he discovered Ban Pa Ao, a community that had been practising a specific type of lost wax brass casting for over seven generations.
They are the last of their kind, the only village left in Thailand that embraces tradition, and is leading the final stand against modern-day fast-fashion. If Bangkok or New York is characterised by speed, this could only be described as analogue.
But they aren’t secretive of their ways, as Robert has come to find out.
Sculptors create moulds from cow dung and termite clay. They then extrude their own wax by squeezing it through bamboo, coiling these wax forms that will later melt away during casting, poured back in to begin the cycle anew. One casting can take up to six weeks, even longer during the rainy season.
Above: Ban Pa Ao Convex Sconce - Coiled Rice Husk Blue
Pern Baan’s breakthrough moment came when Robert invited his friend Pat Kim, a master wood turner from New York, to visit Ban Pa Ao. COVID-19 hit just as they arrived, but the pandemic presented itself as the perfect opportunity to slow down, reset, and connect with the moment.
Pat and the community didn’t share a common language, yet they still connected. The craft spoke for them in ways that words alone could not convey. Robert, Pat, and the community ate together, drank together, and worked alongside one another.
For the first time, that sense of belonging that Robert had been searching for so long was right there in front of him. Spoken language alone was not the only way to communicate; design could also be that translator.
The Ban Pa Ao Collection, designed mostly by Robert in collaboration with the community, became Pern Baan's founding work. Robert has returned to Ban Pa Ao over fifteen times since, to those whom he now considers family.
Role of the Translator
In his previous studios in the U.S., Robert had been a designer, producer, and a full spectrum of creative roles. But in Thailand, his role evolved into something quite different. He became a translator, a medium of communication between the two worlds.
He works primarily with designer friends from his Brooklyn days. Their design sensibilities, shaped by American perspectives, are translated through the lens of Thai craftsmanship. The beauty of this approach, as Robert sees it, is that no one person owns the design. There are many hands involved, where many perspectives coexist to create one piece.
As the translator, he searches for artisans across Thailand. Traditional craftspeople practice in their homes. Smaller workshops in rural provinces. Sometimes, even larger factories, where everything remains handmade despite the scale.
In his first years back in Thailand, he spent countless hours driving around, discovering partners organically. The marble workshop in Saraburi came about this way, where large quarries dotted the landscape, but he sought something else, a small, family-run operation, and he found it.
To date, they've made over a thousand pieces together, most notable in the Blob Sconce collection.
Above: Blob Sconce #2
Competing by Not Competing
So how does Pern Baan compete with the mass-produced markets of today? The answer is quite simple: they don’t. Instead, Robert tries to connect with customers who share the same adoration for artisanship and storytelling.
Connection over commerce is Pern Baan's approach. Storytelling becomes a way to help customers understand why Ban Pa Ao brass takes six weeks per casting, why no two pieces look identical.
But the story must serve the design, and the design must honour the craft. When these elements align, there is true meaning, something that transcends the transactional nature of buying and selling.
This idea translates to Pern Baan's five-storey workshop & Air BNB in Chiang Mai, designed as a space where connections may flourish. Workshop, showroom, collaborative spaces, and a rooftop open for events.
It's what Pern Baan truly means, a meeting point where different worlds don't compete but complement, where the cultural whiplash Robert experienced growing up transforms into something generative.
Now in partnership with Surround Living, Pern Baan continues to build bridges between countries and cultures, where the mother tongue is shared through craft, rather than language. Belonging isn't about choosing one world over the other, it’s about building something in between, where neighbours, regardless of where they are from, can finally feel at home.
And this in-betweenness is where Pern Baan lives.
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