Wasana Sitti-issara
Interior Architectural Design
World Photo Exhibition by Wan & Moo – Thai Bike Around the World
Smart lifestyle at present is based on digital technology, which in the future, there are doubts about its existence. The subject of nature and communal lifestyle on the other hand can forever inspire us. The interior architecture project was commissioned by the first Thai biker couple (Wan & Moo) who spent almost 6 years through over 40,000 kilometre in 43 countries around 6 continents travelling on their bicycles. In this project, Thai Health Promotion Foundation was the main sponsor with Shane Suvikapakornkul as the curator. The first installation was located at the departure gate#5 of Suvarnabhumi Airport in July 2015. Up to the present, this project has been installed in 13 domestic airports in Thailand.
The couple’s objective was to share their photos to inspire people to have faith in their dreams, follow them, and make a commitment with the dreams. Their experience is just a sample of mission of life to support and enhance a social issue.
Beside the objective, this project was designed under “site specifics”, which was the through-traffic circulation in airports and the need for modular structures that could be transported and installed in 12 hours.
The idea of “rice seed” was combined with the concept of journey through the wheels. “Rice seed” represents the growth of this mission of life and the life of Thai people, which was translated into the main shape in the plan. This shape implies how a “rice seed” can grow everywhere and even in somebody’s mind. The journey through the wheels was camouflaged inside the shell deep down in the ground to indicate this couple’s modest experience as a sample of a mission of life. The final result was a 1.80×10.80×2.40 m. designed space featuring the two iconic bicycles in the center. The project achieved great responses from both Thai and foreigners.
Santhita Phayungphong
Interior Design
GHO, Lifestyle shop
Advancement in ‘Digital Technology’ has unquestionably transformed our way of living and social perception in the more and more shifting and stirring fashion. Customers move away from department stores to on-line shopping or street market to find unique and rare items or to find the better option when it comes down to price competition.
‘GREYHOUND ORIGINAL’ is one of the most vigorous brand in Thai Fashion Design and Apparels. The Brand director, Mr.Bhanu Inkawat feels the need to bring the vibes of unique, stylish, and modern lifestyle back in to the shopping experience. Therefore, this project launched in their flagship store in Siam Paragon, Bangkok, Thailand.
This recent renovation in 2016, aimed to revamp the brand image, as well as to introduce their new product line. Assorted with other Thai designers brands and high-end, niche product, ‘EVERYTHING HOUND’ subtly presented itself to customers who glided inside this new ‘mixed-use and lifestyle shop’ under the new tagline, LIVE LIKE HOUND.
The interior space has its own advantage, which is a high ceiling that allows an additional cozy mezzanine to enhance the feeling of ‘Loft Apartment’. Each section communicates each sub-brand characters. For example, SMILEYHOUND product was positioned in the sleeping area where a butterfly lounge chair and the bright blue ping-pong table were placed together to create the casual and relaxing atmosphere. The main product line, GREYHOUND ORIGINAL, however, was displayed in the long rows and racks in order to portray a personal walk-in closet setting.
In the center of the shop, selected brands and accessories products such as sunglasses, hats, and small leather goods are scattered around the living area. Customer can sit in the comfortable couch and spend quality time in this zone.
Wannida Nivartvong
Prima Viriyavadhana
Interior Architectural Design
Design and Digital Era
Nowadays, it is undeniable that digital revolution has influenced our lifestyle one way or the other. Not over a decade, it rapidly changed our normal way of life to ‘smart’ lifestyles through the use of smart phones and all applications. As designers, we came a long way from designing everything by hand until digital technology has affected our design behaviors today. It can be said that digital technology has impacted over the design revolution. Moreover the advantage of digital technology such as social network applications enable us to communicate with clients or even contractors faster.
One example is this residential project which is located deep in the rubber plantation of Ban Bueng district at the border of Chonburi and Rayong province with the total area of approximately 1,174 square meters. It is considered an enormous residence for a single male owner. This residence aimed to be a gathering space for the entire family comprising of more than 12 members during weekends and long holidays where everyone returns home. The challenge of the design concepts for this project are as follows:
- The common spaces are to facilitate all relatives with different ages including one big kitchen for the owner’s mother who loves cooking, two main dining rooms and one huge living room.
- The owner is fond of wood so he wanted to use his own collection of reclaimed wood. What challenged the designers was how to control the use of the variety of colors of the wood to enhance mood and tone of the house.
- All furniture in the house was constructed from reclaimed wood, which were re-designed or modified by wood staining process to minimize and control the costs.
It is necessary that designers who live and work in Bangkok visit a client and work site regularly. The discussion with the client and solving work problems will bring about the final approval of the design. Solving problems frequently at the site with local contractors was a work routine that needed detailed and specific explanations i.e. color matching and sizing of the reclaimed wood, harmonizing natural materials with the artificial materials or detailing of the designs that could not be settled by neither the owner nor local contractor. The use of the smart phone and the social network applications are tool to for the communication. Without digital technology, this project would have been a more arduous task not only between the owner and designers but also local contractors and designers.
As long distant communication is time consuming and much troublesome in practice, digital revolution has helped create managerial tools that shaped the nature of designers’ work and the project owner’s lifestyle. Without the help of this digital technology that made everything done faster and effortless, this project would have been impracticable.
Klairung Attanatho
Product Design
Shades of White
Nowadays, people life styles are changed by the new pace of technology. Digital technology becomes part of everyday life and reachs its hand in to every aspect of how we react to the world. Not to mention for the convenience, but consuming art in this era has turned to the using of digital technology as the channel to reach or even to create the art work itself.
The work created by digital technology can create the real-life image and fascinates people in term of the advance imitation in light and shade.
This art work, in contradiction, tries to prove experimentally the creating work of art with real light and real shadow without any aids from digital technology. The theme of living natural form was chosen as it is the form that surrounds us and importantly- they are seen in colors. Using only ‘white’ paper to explore the light and shade created by ‘form’ that carves the visual image as the creator intended. This work also contradicts this nature part by using ‘white’, as achromatic color, to strip off the other unnecessary factors. Light, apart from using with color, it can give the vitality, aesthetic, and emotional art work.
Light and shade are the key factors in creating every form in this world. Light defines the world around us. It emphasizes the existing dimension through highlight and shadow as it brings depth to the things it touches. The countless number of shades is giving the delicate, sophisticated, and touching feeling –still art created by digital technology needs to develop more to get the life-giving result.
And may be the charm given by actual light and shade is the thing that digital technology cannot capture.
Nattapol Suphawong
Interaction Design/ Lighting Installation C- Panel
TCDC Bangkok Lighting Facade
C-Panel is an interactive lighting project for Thailand Creative & Design Center (TCDC)’s new office, which is located at The Grand Postal Building, Charoenkrung, Bangkok. The project is derived from the design problem–TCDC would like to promote its new facilities to the society and to introduce the notion of design and creativity to the district. However, designing any physical elements on the historical building that is also one of the architectural landmarks of Bangkok city is yet this project’s limitation. In order to eliminate the design limitation, the clients would like to use the lighting technology that can transform the existing window panels of the TCDC’s office into an interactive façade, which shows moving images generated by lights.
The initial idea of the ‘C-Panel’ is to allow the artists/participants to co-create/collaborate on the digital canvas by submitting low-resolution to the system and the selected art works and/or the creative content would be displayed on the second floor of the Grand Portal Building’s façade—TCDC’s main office. However, the final version of the C-Panel is performed by a pre-rendered motion graphics and custom running-text input by clients. The Project uses the latest LED technology that can be customized and controlled by specific custom application. There are two main modes of this project. First, the running-text animation that allows users to send text messages via web-based interfaces in real-time. Second, there are random motion graphic animations designed by the designers. The design of 180 LED tubes is customized by the existing window structures and details. The tubes can be easily installed, removed, and re-used in the future project.
The C-Panel project is one of the creative works that reflect the notion of the digital technology in both ways–digital technology as tools, and reflect a smart lifestyle on the historical context.
Satanan Chanowanna
Landscape Architecture Design
Green Maze: Landscape for an Industrial Lab
A landscape design for a chemical lab situating within the Ladkrabang Industrial Estate posted a design problem to build a 6,500-sq.m. outdoor lab for testing liquid chemicals for paints under the sunlight. It programmatically requires 9 individual outdoor test rooms, each of which must be enclosed while exposed to sunlight. This outdoor lab would be used for the scientists who would frequent the test samples, and from time to time their clients would visit.
With a concept of lab-cum-garden which provides a green belt to the area, I proposed an intertwining of landscape maze space. However, it is a broken maze in order to yield a connected yet isolation sensibility and the poetic of fluidity of curvature is softly created. The result are 9-ring broken mazes enclosed by 2-meter-high hedges of Carmona retusa (Vahl) Masam trees to form the rings joined by a curvilinear pathway paved with white gravel. Located within the ring rooms are the stainless-steel rags where the metal plates coated with different chemical fluids and paints are laid.
Phenomenologically, it is my intention to use such gauze–like green wall materials to soften the hardness of partitioning while allowing light to permeate through it. Walking along these curvy walls, it spurs a sense of discovering. The gravel pavement allows a strong contrast sensibility and its hardness segregates itself from the lawn beyond it.
Around the building, I designed the hard-scape and softs-cape as the extension of the maze by borrowing its pattern for laying out cobble stones and granite floorings. To eliminate the hardness of stone and the industrial environment, a series of Leguminosae trees are the major plant material aligning to border the front fence and the parterre of different colors and foliage textures composed in the similar motif are used to trim the building edges.
Jaturont Boonla-or
Architecture
Bamboo Technology Design for Sirinart Rajini Ecosystem Learning Centre
( Community Centre)
This project began with the expansion plan from PTT Public Company Limited to improve Sirinart Rajini Ecosystem Learning Center’s facility for future use. The scope of work includes many aspects in design such as architecture, landscape, signage, and some structural design to improve the existing condition. The new learning center is proposed to the community to be used for regular activities such as community market, meetings, workshops, as well as for the mangrove forest ecosystem learning activities. The space requirement of PTT includes a community center building with staff office, parking lots, and public toilets at the location along the local access road to the existing Sirinart Rajini Ecosystem Learning Center.
Design Concept
The preliminary design concept is derived from the information on the mangrove in terms of its natural characters and its structural characteristic. Keywords for the design concept include:
• Rhythm – indicates the systematic rhythm growing pattern of mangrove;
• Loop – imitates the mangrove forest ecosystem;
• Natural Lighting – is the important factor of the mangrove’s growing process;
• Roof Form – derives from the local fisherman’s boat shape which reflects the community’s life.
The main structural design has been adopted from the form of mangrove tree (root and body forms), and developed into the architectural spaces. The design development combined between the primary concept and the bamboo’s structural design principle. Computer programs were adopted to analyze the possibility of building form’s generating according to the design as well as analyzing various types of bamboos in terms of their bending ability, strength, and the material lifespan in order to simulate the main building structure and the weaving structure for the organic roof shape. This digital technology was also used to analyze the compress and tension forces to design the structure members’ connection joints in order to select the right connection techniques.
Suparath Valaisathien
Architecture Design
Pattanakarn 74 house
This project is an expansion part that connects to the existing house. The owner wants to build the new part of the residential project, which composes of more private sections for the family, such as family area, working and study room, and new private bedrooms for every member in the family to support and add-on the activity of the existing house. After this building has been built, it acted not only as an additional part of the house, but also as a representation of the owner’s occupation.
Design Concept
The concept of this project is to identify the uniqueness of the owner’s occupation and integrate with the comfort lifestyle, by using the following issues.
The keywords for the design concept include:
Appearance of the building – represent the owner business
The client is the owner of the famous bicycle shop, so the concept of using the sharp lines and vertical patterns represents the journey of the bicycle ride of the owner throughout his experience.
Green design – optimize natural light and natural ventilation, but minimize heat gain
The building was oriented so that the longitudinal part aligned with East-West, because of the limitation of the land plot; hence the use of vertical shading device and integration with the landscape design to reduce direct sunlight and minimize heat gained from west side and increase privacy to the house.
Low maintenance – use suitable and local material
The owner wants this house to be long lasting with the minimum maintenance, so the materials used for this project have been carefully selected; such as the metal sheet roof is double layer metal sheet with PU form insulation in the middle.
Computer programs were used in Architecture design to study, analyze, and create the construction drawing; and in Engineering to optimize the use of structure and mechanical system.
Naphat Whaichana
Interior Design
Natural light in Guestroom Design
This hotel is a chain of ICheck Inn which is located in the center of Khon Kaen Province. Previously, the building was for apartment renting. When the building has belonged to the new owners, they have turned it into the 2 star hotel.
This hotel had been operated for a couple year and the business did not go well. The owners and hotel guests found problems from the interior design especially guestrooms.
The old guestrooms did not look welcome to guests. They had low ceiling height because of the building structure. Moreover, there was no access of natural light as well as dark color tone of wall painting. They even made each room darker and moldier.
Natural light in space can make people feel inviting. The mission for the new design is finding the ways to make the rooms more welcome. Because of limits in budget and timing, the designer decides to redesign only changing the room’s color and bringing natural light into the room as necessary.
The room is now turned into white color with little color accent on the wall which the headboard is hung. Provide a piece of clear glass on the restroom and add a long window in the restroom opposite to the restroom door can bring more sunlight into the room. White color and sunlight can make space look larger and cozier. If guests need more sunlight into the room, they just open the restroom door. They will see a long window with light and view without seeing any restroom functions. Now the owners and guests are quite impressed with the new design.
Vilasinee Teparut
Interior Design
The Hideaway Cottage
This architecture and interior design project in Khoa Yai National Park area is named The Hideaway Cottage. In the age of digital revolution not only relationship among people and nature, but also human interaction among family members seem to be dimmed out or a parted away from each other through their digital appliances.
The design objectives is to promote the Thai Vernacular Architecture which is contradict responses to the notion of digital technology as a humble to nature lifestyle, and to provoke Thai value awareness while the European influence architecture spread out popularly in Khoa Yai.
Refer to low Wi-Fi signal of the site might be the optimistic vision for family members join their available activities together, such as gardening, cooking, talking, reading, meditating, exercising or even napping.
Design approach is to harmonize with nature by hiding away the cottage behind the original wild trees on the stone hill at site. The trees acts as the natural privacy screen for residents and provide the shade for recreational balcony. The high ground level location offer the better mountain scenery in front. The nature appreciation is serve here full time. The opera song of birds at dawn and of insects in twilight. The dramatic color scheme of season change is exhibited.
The 72 square meters cottage size provide facilities of one open air living and dining area, one open air kitchen, one mini bar and closet area, one bathroom with outdoor rain shower, and one bedroom with air condition as option for summer climate. There are steel folding doors all around the cottage boundary as a security assurance at night. Eco materials are applied use for architecture finishing, such as recycle wood columns, recycle wood door, recycle wood lumber, and waste marble.
DESIGN LITERACY FORUM 