Amanda Levete Architects designed a major retail and hotel complex in central Bangkok, Thailand. Central Embassy, located on Bangkok’s primary commercial artery Ploen Chit Road, will be a new architectural landmark for the city and region and it near its completion. The 145,000 sqm project occupies the former gardens of the British Embassy in Nai Lert Park, and consists of a 7-storey retail podium and a 30-storey 6-star hotel tower.

The unique design of a mixed-use complex merges the distinct features of a podium and tower into a sinuous and continuously twisting coil. The form wraps around two vertical light wells in the retail podium and at the same time encloses and exposes a series of exterior courtyards and roof gardens for the hotel. Internal spaces break apart to reveal stepped terraces and vertical gardens.

Drawing on motifs and patterns found in traditional Thai architecture, the facade of the building is composed of a dynamic and fluid three-dimensional array of ceramic tiles.

The building addresses the inherent nature of the construction climate of Thailand by capitalizing on the surplus of manual labor available and simultaneously reducing the premium of construction technology required for the assembly of the building. By investing in a high level of digital technology at the front-end of the design process, we are able to create a level of visual complexity through the interaction of identical 3-dimensional tiles over a large surface area. By embracing advanced technology and concepts as well as acknowledging local heritage and culture, Central Embassy is an articulation of the search for a perceptive and holistic contemporary architectural language.

Central embassy, Amanda Levete Architects, Bangkok, Thailand, digital technology, ceramic tiles, fluid, organic

Central embassy, Amanda Levete Architects, Bangkok, Thailand, digital technology, ceramic tiles, fluid, organic

Central embassy, Amanda Levete Architects, Bangkok, Thailand, digital technology, ceramic tiles, fluid, organic

Central embassy, Amanda Levete Architects, Bangkok, Thailand, digital technology, ceramic tiles, fluid, organic

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