Gaa – Tranformation of a Thai House

Architectkidd Gaa

Architectkidd creates new possibilities with an ancient Thai House for Gaa, a contemporary restaurant by Michelin starred chef Garima Arora. Gaa is a transformation of an ancient Thai house into a modern fine dining space. With the new design, Architectkidd reflects on the ongoing journey of the house, which originated from Ayutthaya, Thailand. The wood […]

Green Scaffold

Architectkidd’s design for Megapark is meant to be a kind of a “green scaffold”. The structure can accommodate vertical vegetation, and together with the planting and landscape design, forms an environmental filter between the interior and exterior spaces. The design allows for daylight and natural ventilation to permeate the building within a tropical climate. The […]

Creating Community & Public Space in a Shopping Mall

Megabangna Megapark design by Architectkidd

Architectkidd has completed the design of Megapark, a recreational and retail center for a shopping complex in Bangkok. The program introduces communal facilities, park, shopping and recreational areas across three levels to the existing shopping center. The challenge in the design was to transform a formerly closed commercial space into a more extroverted one for […]

Play Based Architecture

Architectkidd’s design for the Apple Tree Kindergarten is a school for children between the ages of 1.5 to 5 years. The school aims to foster a positive and stimulating environment that inspires and enables holistic development through play-based learning. Simplicity, Clarity and User-Friendliness were the key concepts of Architectkidd’s design. The building is curved, with […]

Live Wires

Architectkidd has completed Now 26, a building using steel tubing as its primary material. The building – a production studio and offices for the television station Now 26 – is a renovation of an existing structure. During the initial stage of the project, the removal of the old cladding exposed the existing steel structure along with […]

Essence in an Eatery

“ABC represents the starting point, the most basic essence of eating,” according to restaurateur Pakamon “Nina” Somboonvechakarn.  The goal is to combine creativity along with high-quality ingredients to give taste and nutrition to the menu. For the design of the ABC Eatery, Architectkidd devised various techniques to filter natural light into the interior space. Among the […]

Telescopic Spaces

Architectkidd has completed the flagship store for a fashion hand bag label. With this retail design in Bangkok, the aim was to challenge some of the limitations posed by conventional spaces. Instead of a fixed layout, the design is composed of three rectangular frames that form the overall enclosure. These frames are nested inside each […]

Bird Sanctuary Wins Holcim Asia Pacific

“Protective Wing“, our project for a bird sanctuary in Chiang Mai, has received top honors in the 2014 regional Holcim Awards for Asia Pacific, an award recognizing the most innovative and advanced sustainable construction designs. Each year, thousands of birds are smuggled in and out of Thailand, to be sold on the world’s growing black market. […]

Curved Steel Fabrications

For a recent interior design project, Architectkidd designed a steel screen for the lobby of a high rise residential building complex. The intricate pattern is made from steel plates that were individually curved. Each of the plates were then completed with a hand-finished copper coating. The challenge during the fabrication was bending the steel plates in […]

Layered Structures

For the Hong Kong Shenzen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architecture (UABB), four Bangkok design practices were invited to collectively design a piece of architecture along the waterfront area of Kowloon. The design for a viewing platform for the Biennale grew out of discussions between Architectkidd, Chat Architects, Studiomake, and Thingsmatter. Together our goal was to […]

Architect Expo: Borderless

The theme of the 2013 Thailand Architect Fair is “BORDERLESS”. It reflects the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) initiative to increase trade and investment by improving integration between the 10 South East Asian nations. Architecture is well positioned to play a role as it crosses professional and discipline boundaries.  However, architecture should not only be about […]

4 Projects, 4 Designs, 4 Techniques

Luke Yeung recently presented Architectkidd’s work for a lecture at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Architecture and Planning. The lecture gave us a chance to reflect on approaches and thinking that we have taken on our recent projects. The projects we showed included Lightmos (below image from Wallpaper Thailand magazine): Hard Rock Cafe in Bangkok: Caffe […]

Mass Customized Architecture

As a stand-alone retail outlet, the new Caffe D’Oro shop was designed to be produced and installed in many locations in Thailand. At the same time, Architectkidd was interested in developing a material solution that would be unique, tactile and recognizable to users and the brand. We developed our technique by adapting a material used […]

Floating Hotel

This hotel on the Kwai river is Architectkidd’s interpretation of traditional river dwellings in Western Thailand. The western province of Kanchanaburi is a popular destination due to its mountainous terrain and forests. The rivers in particular play an important role in peoples’ lives and livelihoods. Activities along the river reflect how people have lived with […]

What to See in Thailand

Whether it’s due to rebuilding efforts, tourism recovery or public relations, there seems to be more attention on Thailand these past months. In May and June, several publications, including Monocle and Dwell Asia, made visits to Architectkidd to discuss the architecture and design scene in Bangkok. For us, it was fun to exchange ideas and […]

Designing for Spaces in the Forest

The goal of our “Forest Urbanism” project is to create architecture that can co-exist with new and future forests in the same space.  As Thailand continues to rapidly urbanize and industrialize, more forests are being removed to ‘clear the land’ for man-made and building development. What would happen if we were instead required to preserve […]

Deforestation Increases Floods

The question of how much impact that deforestation has on flooding has been debated in environmental research.  Analyzing something as large and complex as the ecological system presents challenges in isolating the causes and effects. This has led some people to believe that quantitative measurements on flooding and deforestation are too difficult to prove. Nonetheless, […]

Floods, Cities & Forests

For this year’s ASA (Association of Siamese Architects) Exposition,  Architectkidd will be part of a group of design practices that will exhibit conceptual and critical designs on the issue of water, floods and cities.  Architectkidd’s focus will be on the importance of forests and flood management in face of increasing urbanization in Thailand. Forests are […]

Bridgestone Pavilion

The BOI Fair (Board of Investment Fair) aims to highlight Thailand’s rebuilding efforts after last year’s floods.  In addition to public events, activities and venues, over 40 companies and organizations have constructed pavilions to showcase their products and technologies.  Architectkidd developed the building design for the Bridgestone Pavilion. The Bridgestone Pavilion aims to communicate the […]

Polymer Building Skins

During the development of the Bridgestone Pavilion, Architectkidd was able to study a variety of polymer materials. While not all materials made it to the final construction, we believe that taking an “iterative” process is beneficial.  By developing a “test & review” approach, results from mockups, models and prototypes led the project team from one […]

Digital + Manual Construction

As a showcase for emerging technologies, Architectkidd had the opportunity to explore some new ideas in the Bridgestone Pavilion for the BOI Fair.  Instead of the typical building design process – starting with a horizontal, 2-dimensional floor plane, then extruding walls to create an rectilinear building form –  we were interested in attempting to create […]

Urban Farm Wins Holcim Silver Award

Architectkidd’s design has been awarded by the Holcim Foundation as a leading example of sustainable building and construction for the Asia Pacific region. The project, a new retail development in Bangkok, aims to revitalize land currently occupied by a textile factory. One of the unique features of the design is to provide a higher level […]

Lanchaloemphrakiat (LCPK) Museum Project

The Lanchaloemphrakiat (LCPK) project was one of the most talked about events this year among the architectural community in Thailand. The process began as a nation-wide competition and resulted in the selection of five final design teams. Architectkidd joined the team led by landscape architects and urban designers Shma. Working together with Plan (architecture), Somdoon […]

A Different Kind of Food Court

Architectkidd was recently commissioned by the food management company Fooditude to develop a food court for a new mega-shopping complex (40,000+ sqm) outside of Bangkok. With this project, we asked: Is it possible to introduce some aspects of a public space within the strict boundaries of a commercial shopping environment? As fixtures in a shopping […]

Cantilever Spaces

At Architectkidd, we think each material has its own unique properties that need to be considered to realize its potential in architecture. For the design of the Kirimaya House, which is currently under construction, we certainly became more aware of the properties found in structural steel. With the efforts of structural designers Boonsaeng Siriratchuwong and […]

Steel Techniques

The Architectkidd team is currently working on a project that involves designing with steel in construction and detailing.  So during a review of a full-scale mockup that is in progress, several  Architectkidd designers visited a steel fabrication factory in Pathum Thani, on the northern outskirts of Bangkok. The type of projects this factory seemed to […]

Sound Wave: Hard Rock Facade

The design for the new Hard Rock Cafe in Bangkok will mark a new approach for the global Hard Rock brand. This is probably most dynamically expressed in the facade design of the building’s exterior. For Architectkidd, the starting point for this facade design were the shapes, rhythms and structures of sound. Interpreting sound into […]

Parco Condo

Parco is Supreme’s first high-rise condominium project.  Architectkidd designed the interior of the recently completed showcase unit for prospective buyers. Eschewing the ‘theme-based’ approach that is common to many new condo developments today, we proposed to develop a more subtle direction towards the design.  As much as possible, we made use of natural and longer-lasting materials combined with a […]

Design is Accumulative

For the ASA Forum (Association of Siamese Architects Forum) this year, the overall topic of discussion is titled “Bottom Up”. Jariyawadee Lekawatana, Luke Yeung and Phuttipan Aswakool were on hand to present some of Architectkidd’s latest projects to the audience. Architectkidd had been invited to give a talk as part of the “Thai Young Generation Series” along […]

Reclaimed & Old Wood in Thailand

In Thailand, it is difficult to source wood and timber from sustainable sources for building. At this moment, there does not seem to be many local sources of construction timber that are independently-certified for sustainable harvesting and processing practices. While it is possible to import FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and other types of certified timber, […]

From Mountains to Building Materials

The art of stone cutting is a process that involves massive machinery, brute force and lots of water.  Recently, team members from Architectkidd had the opportunity to visit several factories in Bangkok and Saraburi, a nearby province where much of the stone is processed into building materials in Thailand. Inside these enormous factories and warehouses, workers […]

New Directions in Thai Materials

A publication titled “New Directions in Thai Materials” has been released by the Thailand Creative and Design Center (TCDC).   The book  is written by Peta Bassett and published by Serinda Publications. Architectkidd’s project for Lightmos has been featured in this book, as well as recent architectural, furniture and other projects designed by Thai offices and individuals.  What is interesting […]

Thai Public Messaging Culture

Message Kart 2010 will be on display for the upcoming Bangkok Design Festival and Big Mountain Music Festival. Coordinated by Pitupong Chaowakul of Supermachine, with contributions from Pok Kobkongsanti of T.R.O.P. and many other of our design friends and colleagues in Bangkok, this project is a kind of a low-tech response to the messaging culture that is now common in the public and digital domain. […]

Architecture Biennial Beijing

Over 50 emerging practices from around the world have been invited to participate in this year’s Architecture Biennial in Beijing. Architectkidd has contributed a few of our projects for this event, which comprises of exhibitions, student work and a symposium focusing on advanced digital design in architecture. The exhibition is the fourth in a series […]

Can Architecture Compete with Advertising?

There are many advertising billboards in Bangkok.   Driving around in the city, it often seems that there are more billboards than buildings along the streets. Some say that the dominance of these oversized signs has detrimental effects on architecture and the urban environment.   But there is no doubt that the revenue-generating potential of large-scale advertising […]

Hand Made Facades

We’re not quite facade engineering specialists, but we have been using our curiosity as motivation to investigate possibilities and materials in buildings.  In the process, we hope to develop designs that are not strictly limited to functional or technical criteria.  In this recent project, we have created a new 3-storey facade using hand-made woven plant […]