Ma Nandar poses with her children, Khin Kha Kha (L) and Lin Yaung Kha (R), at their new home, which she helped design and her husband implemented, in Thingangyun township, August 28. Pic: Hein Latt Aung

YANGON couple Ma Nandar and her husband Ko Thet Win take a love ‘em and leave ‘em approach to life. But rather than relentless heartbreakers, they are serial homeowners, devoting all their efforts to building novel homes before selling them and moving on to a new project.

A month ago the pair finished their latest creation – a truly unique, two-bedroom bungalow on stilts with a mushroom-like camouflage roof (see House of the Week below).

The Thingangyun township oddity is the couple’s fifth house since returning together to Yangon from a 10-year stint in Japan. Looking for a change of pace, Ma Nandar and Ko Thet Win set about designing homes, contracting out their construction and then living in them while the next design was being implemented.

It’s a lifestyle that has supported the parents of two – daughter Khin Kha Kha is six and son Lin Yaung Kha three-and-a-half – while indulging their passion for the unique.

“I think about the designs at night and then I tell my husband about my ideas. He turns what I want into a reality,” Ma Nandar says while relaxing at a seated area beneath the house.

Work has already started on the couple’s sixth property, also in Thingangyun township, although Ma Nandar says designs are yet to be finalised.

“First off, we sketch a design of the building and later we add things as ideas come to us, once construction has started,” the 39-year-old explains. “The next home has only just had its foundations started and we’re still thinking of new ways to make it unusual.”

It is an art that appears to be improving with time – Ma Nandar says her most recent creation is her favourite so far.

“The roof was inspired by a horse-and-cart type of caravan, while the colours are based on some army uniforms I like,” she says, proudly noting that local artist U Kyaw Min Han painted the cement roof as well as a mural on the back wall in his first foray into home decoration.

Neither Ma Nandar nor her husband have any architectural qualifications but that hasn’t prevented their projects from finding success on the market.

“I’ve got a degree specialising in history and my husband in physics, but we’ve long been interested in architectural design and started reading home design books about 10 years ago.”

Previous efforts have sold quickly, she adds, suggesting Myanmar homebuyers are more adventurous in their tastes than the masses of drab apartment blocks and huge pillared homes would have observers believe.
“Most people like this house because of its strange, attractive designs,” Ma Nandar says.

Ideally she and Ko Thet Win, 40, would like to sell the home to a young family.
Being a labour of love as much as economics, parting with the camouflaged cabin is potentially an emotional experience for the family, who are in no hurry to sell and have pledged to wait for the right buyers.

“We want someone who likes and appreciates what we’ve done. I don’t want someone who’s going to change the roof and the paintings,” Ma Nandar says, before adding pensively, “We can’t stop someone after we’ve sold it.”

For now the nomadic family are enjoying their home. Ma Nandar says her favourite feature is the long walkway to the front door some nine feet off the ground.

“It’s such a nice place to enjoy the breeze at night and for the family to relax on. In the early evening, I like watching the garden through the living room windows, and also from the walkway,” she says.

“This house gives us the most satisfaction and best feeling of all the houses we’ve built so far.”