Contract - March 2013 - (Page 43)

By Murrye Bernard Photography by Wison Tungthunya The typical university student lounge of yore was often a spare room with tables, chairs, and vending machines. But in the last decade, schools have been stepping up the design quotient to create a more fun and appealing interior. Such is the case at Bangkok University, where Thai culture and a new patron have enabled an exuberant, expressive space for young people—the Imagine Lounge. Students will always adapt any communal space as their own, acknowledges designer Pitupong “Jack” Chaowakul, founder of Bangkok-based firm Supermachine Studio. “When I was in school in the 1990s, the Internet was just becoming available, but now students rely on their smartphones and WiFi. So the ways in which they use educational spaces evolves with technology,” he explains. His firm has amassed a portfolio of projects that incorporate bold colors and patterns (see interview, page 72), and despite its small size—only four employees at the time of this commission— Supermachine Studio was called on by Bangkok University’s new leading trustee Petch Osathanugrah to renovate a two-story, 11,300-square-foot space into a student lounge. A former pop singer, Osathanugrah launched an initiative at the school to encourage creativity across disciplines, and this energy was translated into a playful aesthetic for the lounge. Work, play, and everything in-between The two floors, located within the university’s new Landmark compound, are zoned to keep academic activities on the lower level and playtime upstairs. The ground floor offers a variety of study spaces, from desks and internet stations to flexible, casual meeting areas and a small café lined with bookshelves. The main double-height volume of the lounge is furnished with a “super chandelier” that hangs above a large modular sofa—both custom-designed by Supermachine Studio. The sofa’s design is a take on traditional benches called krae, common in Chaowakul’s rural hometown, and used for everything from sleeping to eating and working. Students can move sofa sections, whose backs flip up like beach chairs, to create endless configurations, or they can remove the sofa entirely to make room for projecting films. The chandelier, a cage-like frame accented with 400 beer bottles, serves as a blank slate for students to redecorate, possibly using flowers or teddy bears, Chaowakul imagines. An acrylic bear appears as a Jeff Koons-esque installation, but cleverly encloses a spiral staircase connecting the two levels of the lounge. The ground floor’s chevron patterning presents another visually bold gesture. contract

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - March 2013

Contract - March 2013
Contents
Editorial
Industry News
Columnist: Gaining Projects in the Education Market
Exhibition: Cevisama
Product Focus: On the Move
Product Briefs: Education
University of Toronto Rotman School of Management
Bangkok University Imagine Lounge
Lorain County Community College iLoft
Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall, Sonoma State University
Forum Overview: Contract Design Forum Looks Toward the Future
Designers Select: Education Solutions
Sources
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - March 2013