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Architects: Studio Locomotive
- Area: 1380 m²
- Year: 2023
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Lead Architects: Studio Locomotive
Text description provided by the architects. Tree O'clock opens to the public as a micro mixed-use space, integrating a restaurant and bar, gallery, workshop, health studio, and juristic office for Villa Qabalah residences in Phuket, Thailand. The placemaking for Tree O'clock shares Studio Locomotive's endeavor as Phuket locals and involves the developer and future residents of Villa Qabalah to achieve collective actions committed to gentling an urban adaptation through a vegetative restoration, space-sharing economy, community cohesion, and responsible occupancy.
Context and Challenges - Phuket Island is Thailand’s second-smallest province, and it generates substantial tourism-related revenue for the country. With free-market opportunism and diversified economic growth policies popularizing long-term residency, over a few decades, Phuket’s former agricultural landscape has rapidly transformed into urban sprawl as the regulations permit development in these zones for buildings under 12 meters in height, resulting in the loss of treescape, changeover to non-native ownership, and dissociated community from socio-economic difference.
Approach and Impact - Our young firm, as homeowners, felt entitled to address the footprint of accelerated urban sprawl and to reconcile a sustainable community alongside tourism-economic progress through these three approaches.
Reconfiguring Green Areas: Pursuing the restoration of the treescape to the lifeless site while resolving the optimization of land use within the 12-meter height restriction, tree-plantable plots, in addition to on-ground regulatory requirements, are elevated to the rooftops of Tree O’clock and every residential villa. The crowning vegetation facilitates vertical growth uninhibited by the height limitations and maximizes strategic outdoor recreational settings in the complex.
Rooftop green coverage favors the building’s efficient conditioning–with the organic insulation and solar filter, benefiting from year-round tropical rain while providing natural shading, evapotranspiration cooling, and moisture storage–to ease the use of active and renewable energy. Tree O’clock has revived 40% of tree-plantable areas while efficiently managing land use.
Developing Sustainability through an Adaptive Use: Programming for a micro mixed-use pivots on functioning architectural attributes—such as alternative entryways, terrazzo and sandwash amphitheater staircase, transitions of floor levels, and furniture arrangements—that enable scalability and versatility for Tree O'clock's most regular uses and productive repurposing. The building accommodates routine access from Villa Qabalah occupants, serving as a facilities center and an open leisure hub with hospitality services and cultural events that invite visitor dynamism. Since its opening, Tree O'clock has become a local landmark, hosting art exhibitions, wellness activities, and tasting events enjoyed by locals and travelers. Its independence as a public-welcome venue with an adaptive environment actualizes a self-sustaining capability from the space-sharing economy.
Embracing Non-exclusivity to Foster a Sense of Community: The practice of multi-functionality and availability to the public challenges the accustomed values of housing developments in Phuket, often gated and self-contained. In exchange, making good use of Tree O'clock as a communal nexus unlocks opportunities for both new and local residents to develop connections, shared identities, and common purposes. Commercial services imbue the neighborhood with a lively atmosphere, promoting safety to the municipal road. Generous openings—immersing indoor-outdoor interactions of the vegetative community, passersby, changing weather and times, and socializing inside—enrich a sense of belonging and placemaking of Tree O'clock.
Peripheral corners—often claimed for saleable land extensions—are dedicated to restoring landscape aesthetics and creating transitional space to the local byway, favoring gate-free management. As residents and developers enjoy maximized soft scape spaces, they are encouraged to contribute participatory services to their greenery, collectively improving the ecosystem and urban environment of their vicinity.
