TRANSIENT WORK SPACES:THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH TURNOVER OFFICE BUILDINGS IN BANGKOK

Abstract

In high density urban cities like Bangkok, the space requirements for a living and working in extremely high demand. The result is a crowded environment with lower air quality and higher cost-of-living. Typical office workers cannot afford to live downtown therefore spend a lot of time on the commute. Thailand has an abundant of highly educated workers at a lower costs than its neighbors thus are of interests to investors looking to access talents. With the ASEAN initiative approaching, Thailand is engaged in multiple efforts in order to benefit from this agreement. The objective of this thesis is to find architectural solutions to help investors economically access Thai office workers, thus increasing the possibility of higher investments coming to Thailand. This research aims to study viable alternatives to traditional downtown high rise offices. The study focuses on ways to take advantage of changes in technology to improve office work processes while reducing the cost of space usage. The study also considers ways to reduce the environmental impacts the building would have on its surrounding areas. While computers and personal communication devices have improve the speed of communication, they have contributed to the isolation of the workers from their own work team. Advances in technology shorten and change the working life cycles for both hardware and software products. The physical requirements of the office architecture also begins to change. This research also looks for ways the architecture can influence workers behavior to increase collaboration and social interaction within the workspace. The resulting site selection is a location that can easily be reached by the train system at the outskirts of Bangkok. The design uses a layering concept starting from the interior to the exterior of the building. Supporting a hoteling concept allowing the leases to become shorter and more flexible, core of the building is designated as easily reconfigurable office work areas that can be leased by small or medium sized companies. The outer ring if the building is designed as shared spaces for casual meetings and interactions. On a social level, the building interacts with the cityscape by providing urban park, and space for a local market, as well as dedicated shops on the first and second floors of the building complex. The benefit of this design is a holistic solution that support requirements of all parties from the building owners for an easily changeable space which provide for the least amount of down time between leases; office workers for a high quality work space; and investors for a lower cost and less restrictive lease terms; and lastly, the neighborhood for a socially conscious building with added amenities for the local area.