JOUER AT SUKUMVIT 32 & SŌKO

GET TO KNOW WITH JOUER AT SUKUMVIT 32, A SMALL CREATIVE COMMUNITY FOR PEOPLE TO MEET, SHARE, AND EXPRESS THEIR CREATIVITY 

TEXT: PRATCHAYAPOL LERTWICHA 
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN EXCEPT AS NOTED

(For Thai, press  here)

Being able to escape the chaos and bustling, crowded urban scape of Thonglor neighbourhood at Bangkok’s city centre, home to a sea of high-rise buildings, to a space where one can relax, let loose and slow down their fast paced life sounds like pure bliss. It would be even better if that place were another creative space where people could meet, share and express their creativity. Because if there is anything Bangkok doesn’t have enough of, it has got to be creative spaces.

Jouer at Sukumvit 32 is a medium-sized land in Soi Sukhumvit 32. Dai Mogi, the owner of the project and hair salon, Rikyu (one of the establishments in Jouer) intends for the place to be a creative community that brings together people from different professions within the creative industry. Jouer is a French word. Pronounced /ʒwe/, the word means ‘to play’, implicating the project as a space where everyone can ‘play’ together.

“It’s designed to function as a creative community where creative people can come together. It isn’t very commercially driven but intends for everyone to take part in inspiring and nurturing creativity,” Wtanya Chanvitan, one of the architects who founded  Bangkok Tokyo Architecture and a co-creator of Jouer told art4d.

Originally, the property where Jouer at Sukumvit 32 is now located was occupied by a number of old houses. When the owner of Rikyu, the famous Japanese hair salon brand, expressed an interest to rent one of the homes, the landlord gave one condition that he would have to rent the all the units within in the property, leading him to ask his friends and acquaintances in the creative community to take up the lease. Bangkok Tokyo Architecture is one of them.

“Rikyu is a hair salon but it isn’t an ordinary hair salon. There’s an attempt to build a creative community with workshops, a gallery space and several other activities that are more than what you would expect from ordinary hair salon services,” Chanvitan shared the background of Rikyu with us.

with us. The owner assigned her the task of designing the brand’s Bangkok branch. Recently, this creative village at Sukhumvit 32 welcomed SŌKO (the Japanese word for ‘warehouse’), a multifunctional space designed to host creative activities such as art exhibitions, workshops, lectures, etc.

 

After months of renovation, the revamped SŌKO is now relocated to the house at the front of the property after the lease with the old tenant ended. The refurbishment demolished the original walls, repainted and redecorated the functional spaces. The architect added a front veranda enveloped with transparent glass walls and doors to the new program. The exposed concrete columns are newly constructed and positioned in a different axis from the original structure. All these elements create a space of interesting ambiguity and interconnected dimensions, from inside-outside, old-new to private-public. The ambiguous characteristics seem to work in favour of how the space can be used in the future, in terms of diversity and creative possibilities.

While Jouer at Sukumvit 32 is merely a small piece of land tucked away in Bangkok’s complex urban fabric, Bangkok Tokyo Architecture is hopeful that all the current and future activities and inspirations originated from the space will cause a ripple effect and eventually lead to the birth of many other creative spaces.

“We do hope that whatever happens at Jouer will inspire other activities to take place and prosper in the form of other new spaces, programs, platforms and ideas,”, Chanvitan concluded the project’s aspiration.

btarchitecture.jp
facebook.com/jouer32
facebook.com/sokocreativespace