Redevelopment of ‘Siam Discovery’ Retail Complex in Bangkok by nendo

A large-scale retail complex ‘Siam Discovery’ in Bangkok has been recently given a new design by a world-renowned Japanese design studio nendo. The renovated building became more open and got rid of the previous sense of oppressiveness.

First, the designers tried to solve the problem of a poor flow of visitors inside the complex. They united a series of existing circular atriums into an elongated canyon-like space that drew visitors to the back of the building. In addition, a wall consisting of 202 frame-shaped boxes with video monitors, digital signage and displays of merchandise were installed along one side of the atrium. This wall plays the role of a directory for the whole complex and also draws visitors to the upper floors since it extends up from the first to the fourth floor.

The project represents a new concept for retail – a hybrid between a shopping center and a department store, so it includes a number of self-curated retail points in addition to traditional tenants. Rather than categorizing products by brand, the experience is organized around the theme of lifestyle laboratory, which aims at encouraging visitors to discover and enjoy a mixture of tastes and lifestyles. This concept is emphasized in retail points by the use of motifs that include laboratory equipment, such as beakers, flasks, test tubes, diagrams of molecular structures, nucleotide DNA sequences, microscopes, amoebas, smoke, and bubbles.