bangkok project studio: kantana film and animation institute, thailand

students at thailand’s kantana film and animation institute will have an experiential understanding of the massive effort and care of a creative act. the home of the undergraduate college, itself a manifestation of the country’s largest film studio endeavoring to invest in local talent, was designed by thai architect boonserm premthada and features eight-meter-high handmade brick walls. the architect states that the total sensory experience is universal, and therefore the built form, particularly when the program calls for creative reflection, should engender such a phenomena; as such over half a million handmade bricks were made locally and imbue the space with a distinctly human scale and touch.

the building is located on a rural site just northwest of the capital
image © bangkok project studio (also main image)

the staggeringly thick masonry is punctuated by orthogonal apertures at irregular intervals that serve both to help ventilate the spaces and provide quiet enclaves for sitting and relaxing. while the building is supported by an inner steel structure, the gap between the inner and outer skin of the edifice guards against heat transfer and naturally cools the spaces. the school is organized into 5 different areas– administration, lecture rooms, a workshop, library and a canteen– all connected by a network of axial hallways, delineated by the undulating vertical planes of brick.

eight meter high walls are punctured by an irregular pattern of apertures
image © aga khan award for architecture / pirak anurakyawachon

while the rural site was challenging, the interior forest of graystone and concrete paths extend the learning spaces and blurs the borders between built and natural space. the compositions of mass and void is intended to inform the student’s thinking and help stimulate the kind of visual story-making required in the creation of a film. this is an architecture literally formed by the human body and made all the more rich by the deeply human stories that will grow within its walls. the school was recently shortlisted for the aga khan award for architecture; see designboom’s coverage here.

the handmade brick planes layer to guard against heat transfer
image © bangkok project studio

entrance view
image © bangkok project studio

close to a million bricks were created for the project
image © bangkok project studio

graystone and concrete paths are interspersed with trees
image © bangkok project studio

image © bangkok project studio

circulation between the four buildings becomes and opportunity for reflection
image © bangkok project studio

image © bangkok project studio

overall view of one of the buildings
image © bangkok project studio

details of the brickwork
image © bangkok project studio

openings serve the double purpose of allowing light and ventilation as well as creating seating areas
image © bangkok project studio

staggered brick
image © aga khan award for architecture / xaroj prawong

seating areas in the lecture room courtyard
image © bangkok project studio / xaroj prawong

view of the outdoor space
image © bangkok project studio

studio courtyard
image © aga khan award for architecture

library entrance view
image © aga khan award for architecture / pirak anurakyawachon

library courtyard
image © bangkok project studio

lecture hall view
image © bangkok project studio

view of the canteen
image © aga khan award for architecture / pirak anurakyawachon