49 all(zone) new(zone): The Headquarters

At the last day of the year, it is rather common to flashback of all what have happened during the year about to be gone by. For us, it is really a transformation year of many things. However, the biggest deal of the year is this:


Our new office we just moved in last September (while there were still many construction workers working along with us in the building!) It is a very long project.. a long story to tell. But at this sentimental moment that finally within this year it is more or less 'completed', we are more than happy to share with all of you!




It all has begun in the middle of 2007, my sisters bought a small townhouse-shophouse in Sukhumvit 49. While the design process was going on around the New Year of 2008 for the renovation, the neighbor came to us and offered to sell another one.... my sisters then, bought this one too (the offer was too good to resist). So we have two slices of shophouse in stead of one. The construction began around mid-2008 because our beloved contractor was busy finishing Pim's Guesthouse & Studio! We dismantled all the walls on both sides. Here is the photo for the building with the wall and without:

By the way, we also performed a ceremony to start the construction recommended by a Feng Shui Master. Because the year of 2008 was not really perfect to begin a construction, he said it would not be completed easily so we needed to do this ceremony to lighten the bad effects ---> now we learned that he was right, the project has been really difficult with a lot of problems -_-"


Basically we also took almost everything off in the interior space. The shophouse typology in Thailand is quite rigid. The interior space usually is rather dark with natural light coming from one side, because on the back is a service part. We hate that kind of space - so what we wanted is to make the space bright and lighted with as many openings as possible.


Therefore, if we get natural light with a lot of openings, the heat and the rains in such our extreme tropical climate requires more complex solutions. We have some references from my research on 'fragile tectonic' or 'fragile wall' project (I have been doing this project with my students since 2007) of contemporary vernacular architecture around us.


We then, fell in love with the local concrete blocks which is very easy to make, can be designed in several shapes and forms. This could be perfect as a building skin for sunshades. It could also work in substitute of metal bars to protect the building from thieves breaking in - we had this experience once in the previous office, not so fun at all. Also the skin could be an external curtain for our privacy -thinking of how expensive the curtain would be for such big windows!

We began with the existing typologies of these concrete blocks. Then some of them we designed and had them made especially for us. The idea was also developed with Stefi-ID Lab - thanks for pulling us this far. :)



These are the very first schemes we did. Several patterns, several colors. :) We enjoyed greatly choosing /designing the pattern of the blocks.

And finally here is the design. We added the steel structure on the facade to hold the new concrete block skin, also the space between the openings and the skin is a kind of balcony, where the plants could be placed, people can come out for smoking, or become a service space on the back for condensing units, drying cloths and so on. We believe that this kind of 'in-between space' is very crucial for urban living like this, we can also call it 'breathing space'.


The ground floor is a common entrance and parking. The 2nd, 3rd & 4th floors are office space. We use the 4th floor as our office and hope to rent the 2nd & 3rd floor to those who love to be around us. :) The three floors are designed in a way that it can be a normal office or live-in studio/office. The 5th floor is my apartment with small open patio --> well I pay the rent to my sisters, of course. The roof top is also a big terrace! The planning got influenced also by our Feng Shui Master - well actually he helped us to settle a lot of issues, we were a bit tricky that we chose to believe only some parts we like (please dont tell him). -_-"


You can see that we really planned to color the skin. Because we believe that Bangkok is full colorful buildings, we want to be one of them. But then when we first did color them, we couldn't stand to be in the interior space because the super strong sunlight was basically colored and made it hard to live in the space. :( Although we liked it very much, we had to change our mind with the color.


Here is the present color --> grey scale mode.


Here we go: the building in its context. Not bad, isn't it? :)

On the back of the building, looking from S&P restaurant next door.

The very front of the building, you can see this view only from KANOM bakery, also our neighbor.

The beloved facade! We learned a lot really from working on this building. First, to do a renovation of a building, as an architect, you have to charge the fee double! Because of all complicated matters. Then, no contractor would like to do a renovation. :O We had to wait until our beloved contractor, Terdsak and his team for a long long time. The last, doing a renovation is very costly! -_-"


The stair hall:

At the breathing space (our little balcony). With the steel structure all the floor and the side walls are cover with wire mesh steel.. so it is very transparent. Some say that the space is a bit scary, but after a while we got used to and love the space. We usually go out to get some air during a break, talking on a phone outside, smoking of course.

Also the light and shadow casting on the shape of the blocks changing all day long.

Some people are curious about safety. We are actually the most nervous sub-species of homo sapiens when it gets to safety in a building. :) This is a fire exit stair behind the concrete block skin going all the way from the 5th floor, down to the ground.

The interior space at night. We work happily after. :)

If you want to see more, you can reach our newly launched website. Or if you want to come to visit us, here is our location on google map - you can see that we are in one of the most crowded area of good restaurants in town! Or if you like it so much and want to be with us in the building. Let's talk then. :)

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48 New Kids on the Block: Thai Parliament House Competition

Within architectural scene in Thailand now, nothing is hotter than the competition of our new Parliament House - another gigantic almost-too-long-to-be true project of about 300,000s sq.m. The competition began around mid 2009, the first submission was in last August, and the final result was announced last week. Well, we wont talk about the result yet, rather one of the 10 finalists.

The youngest team of the 10 finalists is a team of 11 of my students who just graduated less than two years. The 'really' NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCKS. (For the first round of the competition, anybody who has an architectural license in Thailand is eligible to enter. However, for the last round of the 5 finalists, each team has to find a big enough firm to work with to guarantee the execution of the project in case of winning.) I invited them to give a lecture in my Contemporary Asian Architecture class last month, before the result was announced. Although they did not make it to the 5 finalists after the presentation & interview, I believe their scheme is one of the best among the 10 - you can say that my opinion is a bit bias because they are my students.. but well, it just cant help! :)

Let me give the names of all of them to honour and thank them for coming to give the lecture for me: Kawin Horayangkul กวิน หรยางกูร / Korkiate Kittisoponpong ก่อเกียรติ กิตติโสภณพงศ์ / Kalyawat Lertpeerakorn กัลยวัจน์ เลิศพีรากร / Kirin Tanglertpanya กิรินทร์ ตั้งเลิศปัญญา / Kanin Mantanachart คณิน มัณฑนะชาติ / Piya Limpiti ปิยา ลิ้มปิติ / Pongsan Suwanmaneechot พงษสันต์ สุวรรณมณีโชติ / Worawut Euerareemit วรวุฒิ เอื้ออารีมิตร / Wipawee Kuersirikul วิภาวี เกื้อศิริกุล / Sorakij Kijcharoenroj สรกิจ กิจเจริญโรจน์ / Sasichonwalee Sawadisawanee ศศิชลวลี สวัสดิสวนีย์



The atmosphere of the lecture... very fun and friendly. Many students who were not enrolled in my class also attended the lecture. Because this was really a big thing among the kids. Their senior who just graduated made it that far for such a big competition - perhaps the biggest in Thailand ever.



The key image of the project:

Their interpretation of the space for democracy is this triangle shape space, an open space of people under the same roof. People could enter this space and move freely. The shape of this triangle is the shape traditional Thai roof in a quite subtle approach compare to the rest of the entries. The key representation of the parliament system through architecture is the main conference hall where all the decisions of the country's policies are made here. The hall is placed under the triangle void, at the lower level than the main level so that people could actually watch the parliament meeting from above. It is very daring scheme, I believe. The disposition emphasizes the role of people over their political representatives. If you think about all the political conflicts we are having in this precise moment, the scheme is a bit didactic as well as optimistic - the architects believes that our politicians would be aware of this idea, and behave properly. :O

The diagram explaining this idea:



The building:

The building mainly divided into three parts the office of the Senate (the Upper House members), the office of the Representatives of Thailand (the Lower House members) and the main conference hall which is placed under this open void in between the two offices. The office parts are arrange with triangle module, so that every unit could also gain a cross ventilation, if wanted.

The whole idea of site planning is related to water, since the site is by Chao Phraya River. The water is used as barriers for different security levels. The water moats are made in the square pattern, again, borrowed from traditional Thai pattern. The water could be pumped in during the normal time, when the security is rather high, and it could be drained out so that the plaza could be fully used for different events.


Here are the different event diagrams.


The building at dust time...not bad at all. Well some said that it looks a bit 'starwars-like', I took this as a compliment for them :).



Although the project did not pass into the 5 finalists. This is really a very big step for these "New Kids". From the final result announced last week, I am more than certain that if we are going to have another competition of the Parliament House again in the next few decades when these new kids will be no longer kids, we will surely have a really 'New' Parliament House that we all could refer and be proud of. It will not be a building that looks as if it was built a couple of centuries ago like the one we are about to get !

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47 Selinunte, Sicily: the Greeks were so cool!

Since last week until yesterday, I was participating in a design workshop/competition in Selinunte, a small archeological site town in Sicily, the biggest and south-most island of Italy. The town is a small summer resort town with the Greek ruins. There is a long page of Selinunte in Wikipedia HERE.




The venue we worked during the workshop was actually in the archeological site. :O very impressive. The vast landscape with ruins, almost without anything in your sight apart from ruins..




An old traditional Sicilian farmhouse was our base in the archeological site (supposedly the biggest archeological site in Europe), it is just few hundreds meters from this temple (Temple E).



Therefore, I had a chance to go there everyday.. many times a day I walked by the temple... under the sun, under the rains..


The whole archeological compound aged around 2300 - 2700 years old... Seeing all these stones, I have to accept that the Greek were so so cool. And compare to them, I am a pretty lousy architect, indeed. -_-"



For the privilege of being there for the workshop, we were allowed to be around the temple at night, after tourist time too. Very impressive, isn't it?



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46 all(zone) goes wallpaper :)

We just received the latest September issue of Wallpaper* Thailand which featured our little work in ARCHITECTURE HOTSHEET column --> we are very honored, flattered and so so hot :D





The project published is Pim's House and Ceramic Studio we finished late last year --you perhaps knew it already.


The article written is very interesting. The writer, Suriya Garudabandhu, could communicate the key issues of the project very well without bombarding a lot of architectural jargon to confuse common audiences. Still it is has a bit of entertaining sarcastic humor, such as when he writes: "We believe that there are many people collaborating behind a successful architecture. Amazing piece like Guggenheim Museum (at Bibao - my addition) would not have been realized without those who translated those sketchy sketches of Frank Gehry into construction drawings. (And we perhaps have to give a credit of Gehry office's janitors who had a marvelous insight being able to differentiate study models from trashes.)" It is translated from Thai text of: เราเชื่อว่าความสำเร็จของงานสถาปัตยกรรมสักชิ้นนั้นมีผู้อยู่เบื้องหลังมากมาย สถาปัตยกรรมอันน่าตื่นตาอย่าง Guggenhiem Museum คงไม่มีทางเป็นจริงได้ ถ้าขาดคนถ่ายทอดสเก็ตช์ อันขยุกขยิก ของ Frank Gehry ให้เป็นแบบก่อสร้าง (และเราอาจจะต้องให้เครดิตคนทำความสะอาดออฟฟิศที่มีญาณทัศนะวิเศษ สามารถแยกแยะได้ว่าอันไหนขยะ อันไหน study model). -_-"


The amazing thing for me is they also published this photo of our design process - very rare in design magazine like Wallpaper*. If you wanna read more of the text, please get this latest issue of Wallpaper* in any bookstores or newspaper stands near you. :)

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45 ISH in Frankfurt : go 'Green' without being so green

We have disappeared for a few months due to our extreme condition of in-between moving to a new office which has been always on delay for many months. Actually we have many things to update on the blog, but just did not have time.

Today we come back with a long-been-postponed-to-be-featured project, an exhibition design (again) in Frankfurt.





Last week of last December, our super beloved client, Khun Wichai of SANA (you can perhaps remember some of exhibitions we did for him in the past), called us for an urgent task: to design and build an exhibition of his products along with the other 3 companies' products to be sent to Frankfurt by the 2nd week of January (basically 3 weeks from then and if we deduct the New Year's holidays, we had few days of works only) -_-'

The exhibition was ISH 2009 in Frankfurt, Germany, supposedly the biggest international sanitary ware trade fair. The space given is about 3 x 12 m. An interesting condition given by Department of Export Promotion who was the main organizer from Thailand, was to use recycle or recyclable materials - I guess it was from the strict Eco-Friendly German. We began to search possible materials to be the structure / main display of the exhibition --> it has to be light, easy to assemble with no extra labour involved apart from the exhibitors. Within few days, we found, Xanita, a company produces honeycomb recycle paper board. It is very light, quite durable if used indoor only. The super nice thing is Xanita teamed with another company that can print and cut them very accurately with CNC machine. So we had endless possibility. Not to mention, the staffs of the company who were very enthusiasm and helpful - thanks to them!

We did many small prototypes of folding cutting papers to have the sheets standing themselves without any extra structures and finally came up with this type. With the zigzag form, inward and outward, the sheet could stand without any problems. Here is the prototype, experimenting with some lighting.

The clients, apart from SANA, were WATSON, ANA and VN, (all of them were the manufactures of sanitary ware in Thailand) liked the prototype, but asked to make it a bit more colorful. Tatan, my ex-student, who is an expert on Thai traditional architecture and decorative elements, gave us some helps on the proportion of the patterns and colors. So here is the final prototype.


We then sent the drawings / artworks to be in production. Within fews days only, we got the panels.


Then at our previous office, we assembled all the 28 panels with 3 people (us), it took only 2 hours.. not bad indeed.


The real panels looked pretty much similar to the prototype. :) As you can see from the comparison here.


The whole exhibition filled up our space on the ground floor completely, rather nice..



The very simple form of folding in and out create quite nice effects with lighting.



The details are very simple. You can see the honeycomb section of the paper here.


Finally the boards were shipped to Frankfurt on time - thanks god! The exhibition was during the last March. None of us went along, but heard from Khun Wichai that it went well.

This was one of our experiments with 'green' materials without being outspokenly green as a color or exposed materials of brownish paper. :)

Go Green, without being so 'green'!

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