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RD EYE VIEW
Bangkok's new eleven storey
storey insurance the best of
of new materials traditional Thai decoration
RCHITECT of the new eleven storey headquarters office build- ing in Bangkok of the Oriental Life Assurance Company was faced with a double problem. He had to make full use of the site allowing for the growing activities of the company and at the same time achieve a monumental dignity and distinction. that would be a landmark in the city.
Fortunately he had in the manag- ing director of the Assurance Com pany a man with a good knowledge of architecture architectural mo delling is his hobby who sought only to help and not to dictate.
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The result is a mingling of the modern trend towards the glass cube in office building married to distinctive Thai ideas in design which integrate with the modern and are not just added as decora
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tions, but meet functional rational requirements.
To achieve this the main office tower has been placed to occupy only one-third of the site, with a lower adjoining building at the rear, leaving the rest of the site for shop ping arcades at each side and a customer's parking area between them and in front of the office tower.
It was decided to keep the main structure down to eleven storeys because the 17-metre wooden pile used in Bangkok would hardly take anything higher.
Bangkok datum line is only a few feet above sea level, the soil is soft and the working load is 25 tons for each 10-inch diameter wooden pile driven to 17 metres below mean sea level.
After leaving space at each side of the main block for a six metre metre wide road, the main block will be rectangular in shape 14 metres by 30 metres and will be 35 metres high.
The adjacent building at the rear is 1 metres by 30 metres and five storeys high. The ground and first floors of this will be used as garages. for office workers by day and night club patrons by night, and the upper three floors will be let as offices, canteen, restaurant and night club. Access to the main building will be by overbridges.
The main block has a central core of a lobby and lift shaft, the offices being accommodated on both sides. Two lifts and a main stair- case take the vertical circulation.
THE HONG KONG & FAR EAST BUILDER
VOLUME 15, NUMBER 6