A CONTEMPORARY SPACE
Featuring high-tech design and luxurious amenities, ONE CITY CENTRE is a modern new office development that sees Raimon Land partnering with Japanese real estate developer Mitsubishi Estate
IN BANGKOK’S CENTRAL Business District, you couldn’t ask for a better location than Ploen Chit Road, especially the area directly surrounding the BTS station. It’s ultra-prime real estate, and close to an array of luxury hotels and fine dining establishments. But those aren’t the only reasons why the new One City Centre office building – which covers a total of six rai in this coveted part of town – is such a highly anticipated construction project.
Scheduled for completion in Q4 of 2022, One City Centre (OCC) is an 8.8 billion Baht development in which Raimon Land Public Co. Ltd, Thailand’s leading luxury real estate developer, has partnered Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd, one of the most prestigious real estate companies in Japan. The building itself will be comprised of 61 floors, with an estimated total rental area of 61,000 square meters, to which 92 percent will be offered as office space and the remaining 8 percent as retail area and amenities.
Of course, as business has evolved, so too has the modern employee. From their new perspective, work and life are one, and often seamlessly integrated. As today’s world rides on the wave of the new tech economy, the next generation of talents brings with them a new way of working. With an aim to genuinely respond to and fulfill the needs and concerns of this 21st century work force, OCC has a number of unique features incorporated into its design.
For those arriving via the city’s skytrain system, access is made extra easy as the building will be directly connected to Ploenchit BTS Station. OCC’S Sky Bridge connects to the public skywalk making the approach seamless, while an elegant spiral staircase with a lush green core is integrated to connect the ground floor walkway to the Sky Bridge – a refreshing feature of the project’s entrance.
OCC will also be the greenest urban hub in the nearby vicinity, with a frontage quarter dedicated for public use that consists of a sloping great lawn surrounded by large, preserved trees and colourful seasonal plants. For those getting to OCC by car, the designated parking area includes a charger for drivers of hybrid or electric vehicles, while a special bike area with lockers and showers is provided for cyclistcommuters.
Inside the building, the clever design allows for a great deal of freedom when it comes to defining the layout of each tenant’s unit.the flexible office space concept here means that tenants will be able to subdivide the floor plates into optimal sizes, starting from 140 square metres to 1,400 square metres, in order to best suit their needs. This means OCC can cater to both large corporates seeking to relocate and consolidate their existing dispersed leases, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises looking for a suitable upgrade.
As for the building’s uniquely conceived structural architecture, it’s designed to provide occupants with column-free span – the largest such spaces inthailand – which, in turn, lends itself to limitless possibilities when it comes to floor plan customisation. The demands of today’s new working culture most often include a free flow of collaborative space, the flexibility to design for specific functions that differ within each individual business, and the ability to accommodate for future growth. All three concerns are addressed with OCC’S inventive and forward-thinking architectural design.
On the exterior, the simple yet dynamic façade will be lined by diagonal fins that spiral around the building’s rectangular form. This visually stunning external shading system serves to minimise cooling loads, while the floor to ceiling glass windows still let in plenty of natural daylight. The overall architecture also maximises the natural ventilation potential, in order to provide a comfortable outdoor experience for occupants in the plaza and sky garden areas.
Making the daily nine to five grind a more pleasant experience is also a factor, and at OCC employees can take advantage of pod seating, to enjoy their own sense of space, and comfy nap pods to get recharged during the day. At mealtimes the pop-up lunch cafeteria will feature rotating delicacies, while several areas in the building will be dedicated to a new concept food hall offering an array of dishes from all genres of cuisine. Other lifestyle highlights include a café with library, a gym and wellness centre, and a chillout rooftop venue – perfect for relaxing after hours and watching the sunset.
For Korn Narongdej, recently appointed as the Chairman of the Executive Committee and COO of Raimon Land PCL, this Grade A smart building is something he, and the whole company, is very excited about. “We intend for it to be Bangkok’s new landmark,” he says with confidence.
For a company such as Raimon Land, a pioneer and trusted developer in the Thai domestic market for luxury residential projects, One City Centre represents a step new direction that will both diversify and strengthen their core business. Coupled with Mitsubishi Estate’s proven track record, experience, and resources in developing large-scale commercial projects in the region, this dynamic new building development will be a welcome addition to Bangkok’s ever-expanding skyline.
During the month of November, 2020, renowned Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak had not just one, but two major solo art exhibitions at two of Bangkok’s most esteemed galleries. And although the shows ran concurrently, and both galleries are within a veritable stone’s throw of each other, the exhibits themselves were wildly different in terms of scope, content, and presentation. However, at their core the two shows shared a common bond in their mutual exploration of the breast/stupa theme, which has been Pinaree’s artistic trademark for almost two decades now. Sanskrit for “heap”, the stupa is an important form in Buddhist architecture, most often a place of burial or a receptacle for religious objects.
“It’s a simple concept of combining the sensual and the sacred,” Pinaree explains over afternoon coffee and treats at Nova Contemporary gallery. “It’s something to kind of expand your perception. People ask if I ever have problems, as the idea is somewhat taboo, but I’ve been doing it since 2001 and I’ve never had any problems. It’s quite abstract, also.”
Interestingly, the coffee and baked goods we tuck into are actually part of the art exhibit itself, the full title of which is ‘Breast Stupa Cookery: The World Turns Upside Down’. It ran from October 10th till November 21st, and during that period visitors to Nova were invited to buy coffee, tea, snacks, and ice cream while taking in Pinaree’s several large works on canvas, a pair of curvy wooden installation sculptures she’d made from reclaimed Thai wood, and two tables and a shelf filled with buxom bowls and plates – in ceramic, glass, and wood – each of which makes reference to the shape of the female breast.
“I didn’t want to just show paintings and sculptures. We wanted to transform the space. I love collage work, and when I install things like this it’s kind of like a collage. I like to challenge the materials and challenge the space also,” she tells me, adding that it took some gentle convincing to get Nova to accept her vision of an art installation with café. “We talked about this concept before Covid, actually. And then after Covid we felt people were ready to come together again. We need that connection, and that’s the intention of the project.”
As for the individual bowls and plates, some are from Pinaree’s own collection she’s amassed over the past 15 years or so, while others have been contributed by various artists, all of whom interpret her breast as stupa theme in their own way. As for the fresh baked goods, Pinaree herself made the yummy almond butter brown cookies, using a shapely mold, while sweet specialists such as Mad Sugar, Tokyo Hot, and Yora – the new dessert joint from 80/20’s chef Saki Hoshino – have interpreted the breast/stupa idea in a number of deliciously different ways.
“We’ve had some big groups coming,” Pinaree remarks when I ask her about the show’s attendance. “Interestingly enough, the gallery’s had visitors who have not been to contemporary art shows before, but they came for the food, as they follow these chefs.” Along with the daily café items, Nova gallery also hosted three special gourmet sit-down dinner evenings, as well as a wonderful opening party catered by Saki and her chef husband Napol “Joe” Jantraget (showcasing items from their new nam prik brand Krok).
“For me it’s a solo show, but it’s also very collaborative,” she reflects. “At its core is about making friendships and relationships. It also enabled me to expand and get out of this small world of the contemporary art scene. And what’s better than connecting with food?”
Pinaree’s other exhibition that debuted in November is entitled House Calls, and it continues until April 4th, 2021, at the recently relaunched 100 Tonson Foundation. Here, the artist transforms the gallery space into a kind of domestic living area, with multiple shelves of household objects – vessels, containers, and utensils – all adorned in some way with a breast as stupa moulding, fabricated from stacked – no pun intended, I assume – torn paper. The concept evolved from an earlier installation, part of the 2019 Setouchi Triennale, which was staged in a traditional house on a remote island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea.
“I stacked the paper in the same manner, but on these kinds of wooden stilts, and placed them in the tokonoma which is the area of the tatami room in a Japanese household where you normally put art objects. It was an homage to the craft masters,” she says, adding that one of the special Japanese papers she likes to use can no longer be had, as the master papermaker has since passed away.
She later had the idea to add paper breast stupas to different items and curios around her house to give them an alternate context. The idea truly gelled when Covid came