Inside Bill Bensley’s private world: A home without a brief

FOR BILL BENSLEY, HOME IS not a carefully staged retreat where every object stays obediently in place.

“Home is where I can be most myself,” says the 67-year-old American-born, Bangkok-based architect and landscape designer. “It is where I can paint, plant, collect, make a mess and be with Jirachai, my best friend and partner in life.”

That combination of warmth, wit and creative freedom animates Hacienda Botanica, their private residence in Chiang Mai. 

Bensley and Jirachai Rengthong, a horticulturalist, purchased the land around a decade ago, after considering some 30 sites. The Mae Rim River, a tributary of the Ping River, runs through the property, part of which encompasses a century-old forest once used for farming.

They visit Hacienda Botanica twice a month, staying for four or five days at a time. This is also where their four dogs are firmly in charge. Bensley affectionately calls them the “Jack Russell mafia”: Jessie, Sammy, Tommy and Frankie. 

“They are very small, very opinionated, and they run the place with complete confidence.”

Mexican and broader Hispanic influences appear throughout the estate. These are expressed through patterned textiles, antique furnishings, bold colours, intimate courtyards and shaded outdoor spaces.

A long swimming pool is framed by tropical foliage, while a tranquil greenhouse-like structure contains more than 100 varieties of beautiful flora. Bensley’s private art studio occupies a secluded position at the far end of the property.

Pre-loved architectural elements are central to the design. Bensley and Rengthong drew on “300-plus old columns, windows, doors and beams that we have been hoarding for some 25 years” sourced from Mexico – a country they frequent – as well as Ecuador, Myanmar, India and Thailand.

Both of them have slowly shaped the estate into an eclectic world of tropical gardens and vividly coloured interiors. The various spaces brim with whimsical artworks and sculptures, intricate chandeliers, antique arch gates, playful cheetah-shaped chairs and more.

A portrait without a client

Since 1989, Bensley has completed over 200 projects in 30 countries, ranging from palace hotels and tented camps to landscaped resorts and conservation-driven retreats.

At Hacienda Botanica, however, he is free from the usual demands of hotel owners and brand standards as well as commercial realities.

“It’s different because it didn’t have to answer to a client, an operator, a brand manual or a guest profile. It only had to answer to life,” he says. 

“In that sense, it is probably the most honest portrait of my taste. Hacienda Botanica answers 101 per cent to me, Jirachai, the dogs, the garden and the weather. It is freer, more layered, more impulsive.”

That taste, he acknowledges, does not tend towards subtlety. “My personal taste is layered, botanical, handmade, humorous and probably too much for a minimalist,” he says.

“I like things with history, patina, craft and personality. I like old things, strange things, beautiful things, funny things, and occasionally things that sensible people might consider a mistake.”

The estate is consequently less edited than Bensley’s hospitality projects. Its character has accumulated through the couple’s appetite for collecting, painting, planting and making things over time. There is no definitive completion date because the property is not intended to be finished.

Its evolution has not always been gentle. Two months after they moved in, the Mae Rim River flooded and swept their riverside casita – an entire guesthouse – downstream. Water rose to a metre in the generator room, while a three-metre zinc roof finial disappeared with the current. 

They rebuilt everything soon afterwards – but “several metres higher, and quickly, in case it rained again”. 

As for his personal approach to home design, Bensley says: “At the beginning, one thinks about buildings, rooms and views. Over time, the plants take over, the animals arrive, the studio becomes more important, the paths change, and the whole place starts to have its own opinions.”

His own priorities have shifted, too. “I am less interested now in designing something that looks impressive on Day One. I am far more interested in things that deepen over years... Hacienda Botanica has grown alongside me. It is a portrait, but one that keeps repainting itself.”

More recently, the estate has begun welcoming guests through a collaboration with luxury travel company Smiling Albino. 

Available only as a full private buyout, it gives one group of up to 12 guests exclusive access to the entire sanctuary, including 11 bedrooms spread across its villas and casitas. 

A glorious mess

The decision to welcome strangers into a personal space was not taken lightly. A home, after all, contains private memories, routines and arrangements that may make sense only to its occupants. 

But Bensley argues that respectful visitors can add another layer of life to a place. “The right guests do not diminish a place. They animate it. They notice things. They bring their own curiosity. As long as it is shared with care and respect, opening the gates can be a very generous act rather than a loss of privacy.”

One of the estate’s most personal spaces is Bensley’s art studio, positioned away from the social areas so he can work without interruption. 

“My rather messy studio is one of the most honest rooms at Hacienda Botanica because it shows process, not polish,” he says. “It is where I paint, draw, make a mess, change my mind and occasionally produce something I like.”

Although opening such a personal atelier to visitors inevitably creates a degree of vulnerability, he believes the process of making art is often more compelling than the perfected object. 

“It is a little like letting them read your diary before you have corrected the spelling,” he says. “But that vulnerability is also part of the charm. I hope guests see that creativity is not magic. It is work, play, obsession, failure, persistence and a great deal of paint in the wrong places.”

Work that matters

Bensley spends around four months a year travelling and has visited 106 countries. Madagascar, Benin, South Sudan and Ethiopia’s Omo Valley remain high on his list.

“I am not very good at doing nothing,” he admits. “What I am trying to do now is spend more time on work that matters... I still want adventure. I still want trouble. I still want to see things I have never seen before.”

He now wants to use his experience to create employment, revive endangered crafts, protect landscapes and wildlife, and help surrounding communities benefit from tourism.

“I do not want to retire into being decorative. I want to use what I know, while I still can, to help make things better – and with any luck, still cause a little useful trouble.”

That philosophy continues to guide his work at Shinta Mani Wild in Cambodia, where hospitality helps fund conservation and ranger operations. Shinta Mani Mustang in Nepal is also continuing to evolve. 

Bensley is also exploring a project in Luang Prabang, which he describes as one of the most beautiful and fragile towns in Asia. “It must be handled with great respect, not smothered with designer cleverness.”

He’s equally excited about projects in India, including Surya Sabha, a 104-key palace hotel overlooking Lake Pichola in Udaipur.

“We are also working in Tamil Nadu, including the Palani Hills, and exploring other opportunities where landscape, architecture, craft and storytelling can come together,” he adds. 

“I am fascinated by the idea of creating a museum in Punjab dedicated to the strange, wonderful, spiritual, primitive, contemporary and slightly weird art of the region. That sort of thing interests me much more than another shiny shopping mall.”

Other possibilities span Vietnam, Zanzibar, Mozambique and French Polynesia. Each is assessed according to what Bensley describes as the same filter: place, purpose, protection, people, profit and poetry. “Without those. I would rather stay home and weed,” he quips.

As hotels become more complex and expectations continue to rise, how does Bensley handle the challenges? 

“Owners, operators, guests expect more. Everyone has a checklist, a consultant, a spreadsheet and an opinion. But I still begin in the same place: with the land.” He studies its climate, culture, history, smells, sounds, crafts and communities before determining what should be built.

“The challenge now is to make hotels more intelligent without making them boring, more responsible without making them preachy, and more luxurious without making them vulgar,” he adds.

Living in Hacienda Botanica has inevitably influenced his professional work, too.

“This is where I test ideas before they become ‘proper’ ideas. It has taught me more about shade, water, outdoor rooms, cross-ventilation, the pleasure of imperfection and the emotional power of plants than any boardroom ever could,” he says.

“Chiang Mai is where Hacienda Botanica became a very personal expression of how I like to live. It is not a hotel. It is a living, growing, slightly unruly world of gardens, art, water, collections, pavilions, animals and experiments.”