BRICK OBSERVATION TOWER
General Information
Project Name: Brick Observation Tower
Architecture Firm: Bangkok Project Studio
Website: https://www.facebook.com/BangkokProjectStudio
Contact e-mail: bangkokprojectstudio@gmail.com
Firm Location: Bangkok, Thailand.
Completion Year: 2020
Gross Built Area: 510 sq.m
Project location: Surin Province, Thailand.
Lead Architects: Boonserm Premthada
Lead Architects e-mail: bangkokprojectstudio@gmail.com
Media Provider
Photo credits: Spaceshift Studio
Photographer’s website: http://spaceshiftstudio.com
Photographer’s e-mail: spaceshiftstudio@gmail.com
Video link: -
Additional Credits
Engineer : Preecha Suvaparpkul
Clients: Surin Provincial Administration Organisation
Engineering & Construction: K Golden Land Limited Partnership
Consultants: Surin Provincial Administration Organisation
Brick Observation Tower
Kui, the ethnic people of Surin Province in north-eastern Thailand have been elephant keepers for centuries.
Elephants are considered family members, and living with elephants has been an inseparable part of their long heritage.
But following the economic growth and extensive deforestation, they suffered droughts, shortages of food and medicinal plants the forest once provided.
The last decades saw the two displaced to many tourist towns across Thailand, living in elephant camps, some with unsuitable living conditions and routine.
Elephant World is a project initiated by the local government in an attempt to bring the Kui and their elephants back to their hometown and to ensure the suitable living condition for the elephants.
The project includes the Kui village, a field designated for growing food, an elephant hospital, a museum, as well as initiatives to restore the neighbouring reserved forest for sustainable future.
Standing on the edge between the Elephant World and the forest, the Brick Observation Tower seems to sprout from the ground. It is 28 metres high, 8 metres wide and 14 metres long.
Its footprint is oval, with an acute angle on one side to reduce the wind strength and to diffuse the heat from the sun.
The arrangement of columns and beams results in an alternating pattern of 80x80 cm and 35x90 cm openings.
At the centre of the tower lies the steel mesh staircase, giving an unobstructed view towards the sky while attenuating the sunlight from above. At the top of the tower, poles of random heights create an illusion of the building disappearing into the air.
Clay bricks of 150x300x50 mm in size enclose the crisscrossing grid of concrete structure.
These bricks represent an effort to bring back the forest that had been stripped away from the community.
They are made locally from the earth that resulted from the construction of a new water reservoir dug to contain ground and rainwater.
More than restoring moisture to the barren land, the tower could contribute to planting more trees.
The local Apitong tree has a seed that shaped like a helicopter propeller, making it spin and sails through the air.
Where it drops, a new Apitong tree will grow. Dispersing the seeds from the 20-metre high platform on the top floor, and with the help of the local wind speed of 29-38 km/h, the seeds could travel as far as a 20-metre radius.
Observation towers usually accelerate the upward movement of visitors to the top.
This Observation Tower, however, encourages visitors to take their time, feel the wind and absorb the surrounding landscape at different times of the day.
Looking down from the tower, they may reflect on the coexistence between elephants and humans.
There are human and elephant houses, human and elephant graveyards, all embraced by the forest and traversed by trails used by the Kui and their elephants each day.
Eventually, the forest shall return to the land, and this manmade building will succumb to nature, peaking out only at its apex.
Elephant World is a governmental project which includes a village for the ethnic Kui, a museum, a field for growing elephant food, as well as initiatives to restore the devastated forest.
The Observation Tower seems to sprout from the ground. At the top, poles of varying heights give an illusion of the building disappearing into the air.
The steel mesh staircases at the centre of the tower attenuate the sunlight from above.
Wind is an integral part of the tower. Wooden floors allow the wind to pass through and ventilate the building. Visitors can feel the wind as they stand on the floor.
Observation towers are usually designed to accelerate the upward movement. This Observation Tower, however, wants to slow the visitors down and encourage them to absorb the surrounding atmosphere at different times of the day.
The staircases line in alternating directions until the deck on the top floor. (Images taken during construction)
An architecture that makes one slow down and reflect From the tower, one sees the human and elephant houses, human and elephant graveyards. Despite the difference in size, they coexist and are both embraced by the forest.
The tower features an oval shape with an acute angle on one side to reduce the wind strength and diffuse the heat from the sun.
Passive ventilation The different sizes of the openings were intentionally planned to directly control the amount and the speed with which the wind can flow through each floor.
Not only getting people high up to see the scenery, the building hopes to help restoring the forest. The locals will go up, let out the helicopter-like seeds of the native Apitong trees. And together with the help of the wind, the seeds will spread out wide. Where it drops, the tree will grow.
Eventually, the forest shall return to the land, and the building will only peak out at its apex.
