Archinect - News

Coffee, concrete & bulldogs: Look inside this cavernous new café space from TOUCH

2024-07-25T15:51:00-04:00

Thailand is home to an increasing number of coffee drinkers, and there’s lots of interesting architecture to keep up with the rising demand. Today, we’ll highlight a new coffee shop in the country's third-largest city, Nakhon Ratchasima, called French Kitsch III. The concept blends material inspiration and creative spatial configuration together with form.

Photo: Metipat Prommomate

Bangkok-based TOUCH Architect designed the structure with a total floor area of 2,900 square feet using concrete as its main building material, leaving behind an instantly “strong, memorable” image upon its opening last year. The team had imagined a wedding of kitsch and their client's love for French bulldogs in the form of architecture. What it produced, in the end, enhances the brand identity while creating a retail experience that's easy and sure to lure customers back for another sip.

Photo: Metipat Prommomate

The team of four architectural designers explains their work: “By us...

A Thai café offering a nature-boosted dose of inside and out

2024-07-18T11:34:00-04:00

Among the 16 global projects recognized by Prix Versailles with a World’s Most Beautiful Restaurants award this year is a unique café space in Chonburi, Thailand, from the 20-year-old Bangkok studio IDIN Architects, which garnered particular attention for its delightful and well-detailed design.

Image: DOF Sky | Ground

The stand-alone Harudot project was completed between February 2022 and June of last year. The client, a local coffee roastery, had expressed their desire to pursue a design that affirmed their brand identity’s inspirations in Japanese culture. As a result, the space exhibits a refined naturalism that, as with the other inclusions in Prix Versailles restaurant selections, is a “tribute to architecture and its commonality with people.”

Image: DOF Sky | Ground

IDIN's name itself is an acronym for Integrating Design Into Nature. They say: “The name ‘Haru’ translates to ‘Spring’ in Japanese, referring to a ‘new beginning’ and ‘growth’ while ‘Dot’ sym...

Thailand is in talks to build the world's tallest tower

2024-04-30T11:42:00-04:00

A group of investors led by a Dubai-based real estate developer is in talks to build a mixed-use tower in Thailand that may vie for the title of the world’s tallest building, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

Thailand's prime minister met with a group of Middle Eastern and Chinese companies to discuss the plan. Among the groups consulted was Emaar, developers of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, currently the world's tallest tower.

Screenshot of the X/Tweet by PR Thai Government @prdthailand announcing the plan

As of 2024, the tallest building in Thailand is the Magnolias Waterfront Residences Iconsiam in Bangkok, measuring 70 stories and 1,043 feet tall. Meanwhile, it was reported last month by the UK's Architect's Journal that Foster + Partners was designing another scheme which would become the world's tallest building: a 1.2-mile-high skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Chat Architects completes a bamboo pavilion for oyster fishermen off Thailand’s coast

2023-12-28T11:48:00-05:00

Bangkok-based Chat Architects has completed a bamboo fishing pavilion off the coast of Thailand. Named the Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion, and located off the historic Angsila fishing village, the pavilion aims to revitalize the area’s struggling fishing and seafood industry through the creation of a “new oyster eco-tourism infrastructure prototype.”

Image credit: W Workspace

The pavilion is designed to host an oyster-tasting experience allowing fisherman to relay their fishing history and oyster cultivation heritage to visitors, while also serving shellfish cultivated on the scaffolding itself. In addition to its touristic and productive uses, the pavilion also serves as a campaigning symbol for the protection of the area’s sensitive coastal ecology.

Image credit: W Workspace

“The pavilion design draws on and ‘bastardizes’ the widely deployed bamboo scaffolding traditionally used for oyster cultivation,” the designers explain. “When in use, local fisherm...

The struggle between green design and architectural history hangs over the renovation of one Bangkok icon

2023-08-11T18:40:00-04:00

A Bangkok landmark known as the “robot building” has been stripped of its identity, heritage campaigners have said, as they called for the city’s distinctive architecture to preserved. [...] Campaigners have urged the bank to find a way to improve energy efficiency while maintaining the facade’s unique design. They say the lack of legal protection for the building underlines the broader need for changes to how sites of special importance are identified and preserved.

The Guardian tells the story of the Sumet Jumsai-designed near-iconic "Robot Building" at the heart of Bangok’s bustling commercial district. The 37-year-old structure has been undergoing renovations at the hands of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), irking fans and preservationists who feel its character is being taken away with the wholesale removal of its original facade and, possibly, other key architectural elements which have made it so distinctively part of the capital's visual landscape.

The bank contends its work is necessary for the well-being of employees and to reduce energy consumption. What could result from the fray is a possible change in the structure of preservation, which mostly favors ancient monuments in the country. Air rights can still be sold to developers, which are in part the target of reform efforts. The saga also touches on the need for greater architectural education for the public, an issue which aided in the demise of Tokyo's Nakagin Capsule Towe...

Snøhetta’s new innovation hub will feature Bangkok’s largest elevated garden

2023-02-23T11:08:00-05:00

Snøhetta has revealed its design for a new large-scale mixed-use development in Bangkok. Designed in collaboration with A49 Architects and SHMA Landscape Architects, the 2.7 million-square-foot Cloud 11 development is described by the team as “a hub for innovation and tech companies in the city and provides the area with a large, green public space” as well as a node for “artists, makers, and tech entrepreneurs.”

Image credit: MIR for Snøhetta

In addition to a series of pocket parks, the project will house the largest elevated garden in Bangkok. Described by the designers as an “urban lung,” the park doubles as both a calming space for users and a response to the city’s ecological challenges including air pollution and lack of green space.

Image credit: MIR for Snøhetta

“We have had the opportunity to not only create a building, but a new neighborhood in the center of Bangkok,” said Snøhetta founding partner Kjetil Trædal Thorsen. “An urban artifact providing a thriving place for cult...

Thailand's all(zone) will create the 2022 MPavilion

2022-05-20T13:56:00-04:00

Innovative Thai practice all(zone) has been named the winner of Australia’s coveted annual MPavilion commission, now in its ninth iteration coming out of a two-year pandemic hiatus. The Bangkok-based studio will reveal its design for Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens site in July in advance of a public opening slated for November 17th.

The Naomi Milgrom Foundation, which manages the commission, commended the “playful” firm for having a “commitment to designing built environments where people can feel at home in the world,” adding that co-founder Rachaporn Choochuey’s direction “hold[s] people at the heart of their designs, viewing the spaces they are creating not just as physical architecture but as platforms for people to cheerfully convene, converse, and celebrate.”

all(zone)'s MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Image courtesy The Naomi Milgrom Foundation.

The Aussie answer to the UK’s yearly Serpentine Pavillion commission has seen past contributions from Gle...

The world's largest hybrid solar-hydropower floating farm has begun operation in Thailand

2021-11-17T12:36:00-05:00

A floating solar farm that’s equivalent to about 70 soccer fields in size has begun generating power in Thailand, reflecting the country’s push to achieve carbon neutral status by 2050.

Located at the Sirindhorn Dam, which is about 410 miles east of Bangkok, the facility is the world’s largest hybrid solar-hydropower system. It combines two methods of electricity generation, with 145,000 solar panels generating power from the sun during that day, while three turbines convert energy from flowing water at night. It can send up to 45MW of power to three different provinces in the region.

The $34 million solar farm started operating on October 31st. It is the first of 16 similar floating solar panel projects planned in key Thai reservoirs as the country aims to shift away from its reliance on natural gas. According to Bloomberg, Thailand will reach carbon neutrality by 2050, ahead of its previous target of 2065 that was pledged by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha at COP26. In addition, the country aims to reach net zero emissions by 2065.

Foster + Partners unveils health-centered masterplan for Bangkok

2021-05-20T12:49:00-04:00

Foster + Partners has unveiled plans for a residential-led masterplan on the outskirts of Bangkok. Named “The Forestias,” the masterplan seeks to address the growing disconnect between contemporary city life and family traditions, while also placing an emphasis on health, wellbeing, smart infrastructure, and a connection with nature. The masterplan therefore features elements such as a large central forest, a variety of multi-generational family co-living, and provisions for autonomous vehicles, smart meters, and sensor networks.

The Forestias is divided into two zones: a northern area defined by civic-level public functions, and a southern zone dedicated primarily to residential developments. A forest sits at the center of the masterplan, linking the two urban zones while embodying the development’s vision; a positive, harmonious relationship between the built and natural environment. The forest is anchored by a central Forest Pavilion, serving as an “experience center” with immers...

MVRDV completes second facade at flagship Bvlgari store in Bangkok

2021-01-19T12:37:00-05:00

MVRDV has completed its second facade at a flagship store for Italian jewelry brand Bvlgari in Bangkok. Located in the IconSiam department store, one of the largest malls in Asia, the project follows MVRDV's first facade design at a store in Kuala Lumpur that opened in 2018.

"With this design, we bring a Roman zest for life to Bangkok," said MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs in a statement. "We are working on several Bvlgari stores simultaneously, always making sure that we use high-quality materials such as natural stone, tinted glass, copper, and gold as a basis. Though all the designs will be unique to their location, each will have a distinct Bvlgari signature."

MVRDV's facade designs for the Bvlgari stores take inspiration from the portals and cornices on the brand's very first store in Rome, located on Via dei Condotti since 1905.

The cornice form became a motif that MVRDV developed as a defining feature across the Bvlgari facades, deploying them in a variety of configurat...

Thailand considers moving capital to ease overcrowding in Bangkok

2019-09-23T14:39:00-04:00

Citing overcrowded conditions in Bangkok, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has said moving the capital is a possibility. [...] “There are two possible approaches to moving the capital,” Prayut said. “The first is finding a city that’s neither too far nor too expensive to move to. The second is to decentralise the urban area to outer Bangkok to reduce crowding.”

In August, another Southeast Asian nation, Indonesia, announced that it had picked a site for an as-yet-unnamed new capital — away from the sinking and increasingly congested current capital Jakarta.

Egypt has also been working to move its capital out of the wildly sprawling 'old' Cairo.

Ole Scheeren's MahaNakhon tower in Bangkok now complete with glass 'Skytray'

2018-11-27T19:22:00-05:00

The new Mahanakhon SkyWalk, however, is a thrilling addition to Bangkok's roster of family-friendly tourist attractions. Located at the top of Thailand's tallest completed building, King Power Mahanakhon, it's a 314-meter-high (1,030 feet) observation deck and rooftop bar that offers 360-degree views of Bangkok. The terrifying bit comes in the form of a large glass floor, which juts out over the edge of the building.

With the opening of its glass-floor observation deck high up above Bangkok's Silom/Sathon central business district the Büro Ole Scheeren-designed King Power MahaNakhon tower is now considered completed (construction of the main building concluded in 2016).

Photo: Srirath Somsawat © Büro Ole Scheeren

"The idea behind MahaNakhon was to take the life of the city and bring it up the tower in a dramatic, spiralling movement," explains Ole Scheeren.

Photo: Wilson Tungthunya © Büro Ole Scheeren

"Even the very top of the tower is surrendered to the public, so there is not only a public square at the ground, but human activity rises along the pixelated shaft to the top floors of the building which are given back to the public domain. It is a project that is strongly embedded in the city and the public realm, and expressively proclaims itself as an active part of it."

Photo: Wilson Tungthunya © Büro Ole Scheeren

The MahaNakhon SkyWalk consists of an indoor observation deck with 360-degree panor...

Winning airport design accused of plagiarizing Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum

2018-08-27T14:09:00-04:00

Duangrit Bunnag, the renowned local architect who won the bid to design Suvarnabhumi airport's second terminal, has denied plagiarising the work of a Japanese architect. "I didn't copy anyone else's work. Those who follow my work will know that I created a similar image in my previous designs, such as for a hotel in Sri Lanka," Mr Duangrit told The Standard, a local online news portal.

Duangrit Bunnag's firm DBALP Consortium, along with Nikken Sekkei, EMS Consultants, MHPM, MSE and ARJ Consortium, were recently announced as winners of the Suvarnabhumi Airport Terminal 2 Project design contest. Focused on expanding the Thailand airport, the competition design sparked online accusations of plagiarizing Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum in southern Japan.

DBALP Consortium's winning airport design:

Suvarnabhumi Terminal 2 competition entry by DBALP Consortium. Image: DBALP Consortium.

Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum:

Kengo Kuma's Wooden Bridge Museum, located in southern Japan. Image: Takumi Ota.

Porous interventions to adapt to increasing floods in Bangkok

2018-03-05T16:12:00-05:00

Sea level rise and increased rain have posed serious flood risks for Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, which is already close to sea level. [...] She works to do this by reclaiming urban porosity through a network of public green spaces. [...] She has already been planning and working on projects beyond climate resilient housing - including rain gardens, green roofs, permeable parking, urban forests and farms - to address the root causes of increased flooding in her city.

After witnessing a dramatic economic boom and rapid urbanization—and subsequent environmental challenges—in her native Thailand, Harvard graduate, landscape architect and TED fellow Kotchakorn Voraakhom founded Porous City Network to fight the increased risk of flooding with design solutions and improve urban resilience and adaptability in Bangkok, primarily in the city's most vulnerable communities: "PCN makes the city porous by transforming underused impervious surfaces into a system of productive public green spaces, and advocating maintaining threatened landscape infrastructure like agricultural land, canals, and ditch orchards, which help mitigate excess water."

Stunning royal crematorium for late Thai monarch ready to go up in flames this week

2017-10-23T15:03:00-04:00

At the center of the royal funeral is a $30 million, nine-spire structure where the beloved monarch’s body will be cremated. For months now, legions of Thai architects, designers, artisans, and craftsmen have been working on the funeral complex in Bangkok’s Sanam Luang field. They’ve erected a series of golden pavilions festooned by thousands of elaborate sculptures, textiles, art works and sandalwood flowers.

Architect Theerachat Weerayuttanon and art technician Korkiat Thongphut of the Thai Ministry of Culture — and fervent devotees of the country's late King Bhumibol Adulyadej — worked feverishly to present a crematorium design fit for a deity when they were tasked with the job only hours after the monarch's passing last year.

Their work, and that of countless craftsmen and artisans, will go up in flames at 10 p.m. this Thursday.

Historic community facing eviction in Bangkok

2016-04-01T14:15:00-04:00

The fort community houses 59 families, and is well-known for its wooden houses in the early Rattanakosin-style. Faced with strong resistance from the community, and academics and activists, City Hall the plan but dusted it off early last month amid a public outcry.

The Pom Mahakan community on the edge of Rattanakosin Island in Bangkok has been there for more than 150 years. Many of the old teak houses remain behind the last piece of the original wall of the city. The people of this community have faced many eviction threats in the past 20 years as the Bangkok Metro Administration attempts to move them out in order to implement the Rattanakosin Master Plan, part of which calls for this small strip of land between the klong and the old city wall to be turned into a tourist park. NGOs and academics have, over the years called for the protection of this piece of vernacular architectural history and for the community with the intimate knowledge of that history and culture (see, for example, the 2007 UN Global Report on Human Settlements - Strategies for Survival). A short video of the Pom Mahakan community was done in 2004 when they were facing yet another threat of eviction. That eviction notice was postponed with the help of KMUTT architect...

MMYST: a crowd-funded, human-animal hybrid building by François Roche and Camille Lacadee of New-Territories/M4

2015-09-30T16:14:00-04:00

"What we propose here is a different format for making architecture," Camille Lacadee states in a deadpan tone, "with multiple clients, multiple users, backers, lovers, following a bottom-up mode of exchanges and desire." A robotic arm extends into the frame and offers her a bowl of bird's nest soup, which she takes. "Oh it's hot!"

Alongside François Roche, Lacadee heads the ever-mutating, radically-experimental architecture studio currently-known-as New-Territories / M4. For their new project MMYST, or "mke_Me_yungR_sheltR_tmptation," they've launched a Kickstarter campaign that includes what is likely one of the most wonderfully strange videos that's ever been on the crowd-funding website.

According to the campaign description, MMYST would comprise a 140 sqm (1500 ft²) "experimental hybrid building" to be shared by humans and swiftlets, a species of bird that makes unique nests out of saliva that are prized for their culinary applications.

Sited on an outcropping of cooled-lava in th...

Vinn Patararin challenges the possibilities of textile architecture

2014-11-12T14:42:00-05:00

Vinn Patararin combines the craftsmanship, experience, and interests of multi-disciplinary designers Vinn Chokkhatiwat and Patararin Pongprast. Training separately at prestigious architecture and design schools in Thailand and France followed by working with different Parisian haute couturiers, Chokkhatiwat and Pongprast also incorporate cross-disciplinary theories from sociology, history, art, and culture in their design philosophy.

Vinn Patararin's garments don some seemingly common traits of architecture-meets-fashion pieces — like emphasis on material choice, utilitarian details, pared-down colors, etc. — but the designers add their trademark with their lattice-patterned textile.

Vinn Patararin wanted to create an architecturally structured textile pattern that can adapt to the functional needs and expression of the user. Whether the textile is worn on a human body, used as furniture accents, in art installations, or even applied as a building façade, the designers wanted to chall...

Bangkok's cement refuge

2011-11-12T16:06:08-05:00

Prefabricated shells meant for building Bangkok's elevated skyway have become home for flood refugees.