Text description provided by the architects. The project is part of a new cultural program for a large retail complex in Bangkok, Thailand. The existing commercial space is a 30-meter glass atrium dome. The design of the gallery, housing Buddhist statues and artifacts, is located along the perimeter of the ground floor of the atrium.
Architectkidd responded to these contrasting programs by developing a strategy of 'deep' patterns. By projecting a diagonal grid on to the vertical solid surface that is also radial in plan, these 'deep' patterns result in architectural walls and partitions with continously variable thicknesses. The design allows for varying levels of openness and privacy between the gallery and the commercial spaces, while maintaining a high level of consistency.
The 'constantly variable' design emerged while working within the constraints of the project and with the fabricators on the structure and construction. A singular system was needed in order to simplify the installation process, but at the same time, it had to be accumulative and assembled from small panels in order to generate the overall form.
The resulting 'Public Wall' is over 60 meters in length and wraps around the existing commercial space. Visitors experience the exhibition by walking around the enclosed circular pathway. The Public Wall, which changes in thickness from 40 centimeters to over 1 meter, creates a gallery space that is both uniform while incrementally shifting, expanding and contracting, reflecting a mediative sensibility of the Buddha relics housed inside.
