Prolific designer Oki Sato and his Tokyo-based studio Nendo helmed the renovation of Siam Discovery, an 18-year-old, 430-square-foot mall in Bangkok, Thailand that reopened in May. Working with retail development company Siam Piwat, Nendo completely refurbished the interior and exterior of the mall in its biggest project to date.
Dezeen takes us through a video tour of the space, speaking to Sato and Chadatip Chutrakul, the CEO of Siam Piwat, about their "lifestyle laboratory" concept for the mall. Sato’s main concern was creating flow and having shoppers look upwards and through the massive space. In order to connect the voids in the canyon-like atrium, Nendo constructed a wall stacked with 220 "cubes" that act as displays for products, video screens, or simply a structure that people can interact with.
For the facade, Sato wanted to open up the walls as much as possible, so he designed a double-skin glass wall printed with squares that nod to the cubes in the interior atrium. Nendo also designed each of the 13 individually themed retail points, including creating 20 custom furniture pieces for the women’s fashion floor, and spiral pedestals—inspired by DNA helixes—for displaying shoes on the men’s floor. Each floor is organized not by brand or category, but by the idea of storytelling.
Though the renovation of Siam Discovery is Nendo’s largest project ever, "it really doesn't make a big difference to me whether I design small packaging for chewing gum or this huge retail store," Sato says in the video. "It's always about giving small smiles to people in the end."
Take a look around the mall and watch the video below.