Archinect - News

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.

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...

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...

Your Sea Wall Won't Save You

2018-03-29T09:21:00-04:00

Concepts like “making room for the river,” which works well in the Netherlands, can mean mass evictions in the Global South. Too often, the rhetoric of climate adaptation is doublespeak for the displacement of poor communities, and an alibi for unsustainable growth.

As coastal megacities adapt to climate change, they often bring in outside planning experts who push highly engineered, technocratic resilience programs. Lizzie Yarina looks at how this trend is affecting local communities in Bangkok, Manila, Ho Chi Minh City, and Jakarta, and argues that "resilience is not fundamentally a technical question. It is social and political. Planners and designers must recognize and negotiate the diverse "resilience imaginaries" across the cities in which they are needed."

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."

Collapsing? Or is it supposed to look like that? Construction of a new hotel in Bangkok sparks controversy

2017-08-16T12:54:00-04:00

The panic was kicked off by photos posted to social media tagging traffic news organization JS100. The posts said the under-construction building across from Mahatun Plaza near BTS Phloen Chit looked in danger of collapse. Concerned citizens gathered Tuesday at the construction site on Phloen Chit Road where the building’s angled appearance sparked concern about its structural integrity to hear district officials and site management say it was part of the design.

“The building isn’t crooked or leaning over, it’s part of the architectural design,” Morakot Sanitthangkul, Pathum Wan district director, said.”Let me confirm for everyone again, for the fourth time: It’s part of the 3D design.”

The 32-floor hotel was designed by Tandem Architects, with consultation from KPF, and is planned to open in February.

The building under construction Tuesday on Phloen Chit Road.

How does an architect reflect the life of a city in an abstract skyscraper?

2016-07-06T12:46:00-04:00

Ole Scheeren wanted to meet his client's request for a skyscraper that would stand out in the already hyperbolic architecture of Bangkok primarily by designing something that wasn't trying so hard. Instead of going for a wild, crazy shape, Scheeren started by vertically extruding an abstract square.

However, as he notes in this CNN video, "Of course, this move exactly exemplifies the problem of the skyscraper. It is an abstract silhouette in a skyline that has no relationship to the city, and does not speak at all of the people that actually live in it or inhabit it. So I wanted to open up the new shaft of the tower and reveal the grain of its inhabitation. Through the usage of it, the people that will live in these three dimensional units will start to define the image of the building. The building will project the life of the people back to the city that gave it."

Watch the full video on CNN

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...

A minimalist pop-up apartment for Bangkok's parking garages

2015-11-17T17:59:00-05:00

In Bangkok, where rents are quickly rising and young professionals often struggle to find places to live, architects created a simple tiny house that can easily pop up in a parking garage or inside one of the city's half-built abandoned buildings. [...] Instead of solid walls, the structure has a lattice-like design that lets breezes pass through. "With the wall, we need as much ventilation as possible," she says. "It is always too hot, not cold."

Bangkok-based firm All(zone) is currently exhibiting their "Light House" shelters at the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

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.