52 HJS exhibition @ The Capital of Lotus!

OKMD (The Office of Knowledge Management & Development) of Thailand was established with the intention to transform the country into a knowledge-based society. Several sub organizations were set up to follow 'knowledge' in different sections. TCDC (one of our beloved clients) is one among them. The latest move of OKMD is the project to transform boring public libraries in the province to become more active and accessible by people of all kinds. The project is literally called 'Edible Knowledge Project' (โครงการศูนย์ความรู้กินได้). They set up a first prototype of the library of the future at Ubon Rachathani, a most east province of the country, bordering with Laos.

We were asked to design a very small exhibition for the gallery of the library for the launch of the project on last 24th July.

The exhibition is tailored-made as an outcome of extensive research of the local problems that they have been loosing competitiveness of their products and service without knowing exactly the reasons.

It is an attempt to give a tool for the local to understand how the world is changing through the lenses of knowledge and data so that you could come up with business strength. 'Hed Jung Sii Der, Jung Sii Me Okas" (เฮ็ดจัดสิเด้อ จังสิมีโอกาส) the name of the exhibition in Northeastern dialect, literally means 'do it like this, then you get a change'. The main content is about opportunities of products and services of a new group of the world population so called 'young 50' who have different lifestyle from those 50+ in the past.

The exhibition is rather difficult for us since there is not really an object to display, not key visual that could be striking. We began with the idea of 'searching around to find opportunity in an environment'. The image we had in mind was those of a forest, where ever you look around, it looks the same, but not exactly the same. If you want to find something, you really have to search for it. These are our conceptual models.

Then we got very much inspired by the local tradition of silk. The city is named 'Ubon Rachathani' - the capital of Lotus flower. They have a silk pattern called Lotus pattern here.

The we were trying to make it more 3-dimensional patterns.

We used a very simple and basic materials of EVA (the one we tried to use in Architects'06 exhibition, but did not succeed.) Besides using it for the most common sandals, it is so cheap and so simple that it is available almost every classroom for kid' s art projects. We wanted to use the very common materials in a different approach from what the locals are accustom with. Here is our first 1-1 mock-up of the wall made in the local silk lotus pattern:

We used different colors on each side, so seeing from one side, it will be totally one color, the other side will be totally another depend on your 'point of view'.

Then we searched for more EVA and found several colors available... too nice to resist.

The walls are to house all the information about the 'young 50' who will play a powerful buyers in our globe in the near future. The walls are curvy so that they are more stable. And also we try to create an environment that visitors will always be 'held' in this small exhibition without seeing clearly outside, the curvy walls form the directions and sequences of the exhibition.


Our 1:20 model:

The 2nd 1-1 mock-up. The EVA stripes are basically woven into the very slim steel frames..

The gradient effects of colors that we wanted!

The overall graphic of the exhibition is lead by Amnaj Suriyawongkul and Chatnarong Jinsupatada.

Some of the information is in the form of movie clips, so we had to provide also some LCD displays. Thanks to Buravich, our super contractor of the exhibition for helping us a lot on those small details.

Few weeks ago, we all went to Ubon Rachathani for the set up.

Testing the information panels.

Ready to weave...

Although we had a lot of workers from the contractor, we all wanted to 'weave' them with our hands too, a lot of fun indeed.

Final touch of all the small details, Purich is the king in this realm.

After one full day, we completed the set up. :)

Here it is:


We tried to film the scene of the exhibition because it is almost impossible to take a photo and understand the sequence.

However if you want to see more images, please visit our website. :) And if you have a chance to pass by the Capital of Lotus, please visit the just face-life public library, it is not later than this coming October, you will see the exhibition too. Enjoy!

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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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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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