Central The Original Store, Bangkok
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Completion: 2020
Client: Central Group
Architect: Vincent van Duysen Architects
Photo credit: DOF Sky/Ground
Located on Bangkok's first road, the 'Original Store' was the first asset bought by the Central Group's founders located on the 'New Road,' one of Bangkok's first roads.
It was important to respect the origin and history of this place with its historical and emotional value. The new design has to re-assemble the past to modern-day life and is thought of to educate and exchange new ideas.
With the cafe and store on the first floor, a library on the second floor, a permanent exhibition space on the third and temporary event space on the fourth floor, and a fine dining restaurant on the fifth floor, the lighting design has to serve all the different functions.
Lighting concept:
In the main building, the architect created a series of glass vitrines for a curated product arrangement. In the evening, these vitrines will be closed to transform these displays into lantern-like objects. The concealed lighting within the slim metal shelves provides illumination to the products during the daytime. In the evening, when these vitrines are closed, a soft glow filtering through the fabric interlayer and dimmed a low level make this vitrine glow. This series of lanterns creating the evening ambient for the guest visiting the rooftop restaurant and the bar in the courtyard.
Track mounted spotlights in the ceiling illuminate the free-standing displays and the exhibition and event areas on the upper floors. All light sources have a high colour rendering to ensure a true render of colour of the exhibition area's merchandise and objects.
The sculptural staircase connecting all the floor levels is one of the main architectural feature of the main building. Natural light from the skylight located above the stairs animate the concrete stairs and the terra cotta finished perimeter wall during the daytime. Hidden continuous lighting creates a gradient lighting along this terra cotta walls and guides customers from the entry-level all the way to the roof level.
The clean-lined architecture required carefully integrated lighting solutions to enhance the overall appearance of this design.
The main building's exterior lighting is provided from these internal vitrines to light up the facade's openings. The same terra cotta finish on the outside of the building is gently lit up from each floor level's ledges to provide a very smooth gradient to the outside of the building. Combined with the soft glow from the inside, the entire building is lit up and, from a distance, feels like a large lantern, which gives a subtle illumination to this historic neighbourhood.
