Supermachine: BU SAC

Supermachine Studio completed the SAC (Student Activity Center) at Bangkok University, transforming a 20 years old building that used to be a dormitory into a complex programmed public building compressed into one long stick.

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The SAC (Student Activity Center) consists of diverse facility space, mainly for out-of-classroom ones, from photo studio, music rehearsal room, Thai dance club, 20+ faculty rooms, meeting rooms to pompom cheer leader training hall. All of the students’ programs have to be accommodated into the existing structure of the building that was not designed for.

The old building was a 32 compact room dormitory inserted with 12 compact courtyards. The 90 meter long building was low, dark and damaged from the great flood in Thailand in 2011. The main operation is to merge 2 gable roofs into a new single roof with new structure to make the space more livable for the increasing number of users. The outer skin of the building is re-clad using cedar shingle, to give a sense of uniformity.

Half of the inner space are kept intact but repainted systematically: the existing corridor is yellow while 4 of the voids are modified, made public and painted into 5 different colors (purple, green, pink and turquoise). Natural light is brought in through the void skylights to make sure that the new space is bright enough. At the rear end of the building there is a completely new 16-m-high structure to house the Bu Pom Pom club.

SAC has been transformed from a simple program dorm into a complex programmed public building compressed into one long stick, showing that architecture also can be “recycled”. While being developed, it received the nickname “Toblerone”, a famous Swiss chocolate bar; the building has now a new appeareance and a nickname.

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