Photography by Spaceshift Studio
Archismith Architects has designed ‘The Glass Fortress’, a glass block building that serves as a condominium sales gallery in Bangkok, Thailand.
To keep in line with a large green space provided at the main condominium development, the sales gallery assigned some of the land along the street to become a pocket park in a bustling urban area.
Photography by Spaceshift Studio
To make the building stand out, the ‘box’ building design features 20,000 glass blocks that are rectangular in shape, instead of the usual square-shaped type.
They also have extended edges or wings to cover most of the grouting reducing the width to 2 mm instead of 10 mm as usual. This special detail reduces the visual perception of joints, and therefore creates a continuous all glass effect to the walls.
Photography by Spaceshift Studio
In an attempt to effectively cut down the noise pollution and to block off unpleasant views of the surroundings, the design team introduced 8-metre-tall walls that that hide an internal courtyard.
By doing this, the designers created a place for potential buyers to walk through and enjoy before entering the sales area. There’s also a water misting system to help control the temperature inside the courtyard on sunny days.
Photography by Spaceshift Studio (top photo) and Sky|Ground (bottom photo)
The path through the garden leads to a door that opens up to the sales area, that takes advantage of the landscaped courtyard views, by having couches positioned in front of large floor-to-ceiling windows.
Photography by Spaceshift Studio
To reduce the uncomfortable feeling of being surrounded by massive solid walls, glass blocks were was chosen as the building material as natural light still can filter through it.
Photography by Spaceshift Studio
At night, lighting hidden on the interior frames of the building, gives the building a blue glow, drawing attention from those passing by.
Photography by Spaceshift Studio | Architect: Archismith Co., Ltd. | Team: Jirawit Yamkleeb, Sukonthip Sa-ngiamvongse, Takol Pattanopas, Thanaphon Phumipanchaphak | Landscape Designer: Landscape Studio by Arsomsilp | Interior Designer: Six.Seven.S | Structural Engineer: 2-R Engineering | Mechanical Engineer: V.Group Engineer | Main Contractor: T.T.S. Engineering
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Original Content > 20,000 Glass Blocks Were Used To Create A Condo Sales Gallery, That Also Hides A Secret Garden