THE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO HYPOTHESIS MATERIALIZES THE OWNER’S ARTISTIC PASSION AND THE IDENTITY OF THIS STATIONERY AND ART SUPPLIES STORE IN EKAMAI, BY REALIZING THE STORE AS THE ‘BLANK CANVAS’ WAITING FOR ALL ART LOVERS TO FULFILL
TEXT: JANJITRA HORWONGSAKUL
PHOTO: KETSIREE WONGWAN EXCEPT AS NOTED
(For Thai, press here)
Mediums Sukhumvit 42 is stationery and art supplies store situated in Ekamai, owned by a sixteen-year-old entrepreneur. It is also Hypothesis’s latest design project. The work is materialized from the owner’s artistic passion and the brand’s identity. The concept ‘Blank Canvas’ creates a space that is ready and waiting for all art lovers to fill. Naturally, white is used chosen as the primary color. The design team replaces the orange brick facade of the two-story structure that used to be an old condominium sales gallery with a bright white tone. The white tarp wraps around the mass, adding a dimensional layer to the building with just enough translucency to see the bricks underneath.
Manatspong Sanguanwuthirojana, architect and Design Director of Hypothesis, told art4d that Mediums is an art community. The place sells over eighty brands of stationary and art-related products and the program is designed to host art events and a cafe. The 300-square meter functional space is divided into two product display areas. The first floor houses the stationary zone where all the pens, pencils, notebooks are. Other art supplies and equipment such as paints, canvases, papers, materials for model-making are on the second floor. The entire product display reveals itself in the form of specially designed walls, made up of a bunch of square white steel plates that create a series of grid compartments similar to the pattern on a canvas, meaningfully coinciding with the ‘Blank Canvas’ concept which can be added any products according to our preference and dimension of the product it displays. The items are arranged by color coordination, creating a color gamut that is visually pleasing and organized.
For artists and designers who work at odd hours, Mediums Sukhumvit 42 welcomes night owls with its 24-hour operation with four different zones for visitors to relax and enjoy themselves or even exchange ideas with each other if they wish. The first zone, Art Gallery, occupies a space on the first floor and is designed to have movable walls made of metal grilles. The walls can be moved and rearranged to suit different programs of exhibitions hosted inside the space. The multi-functional room ,NMBRspaces, is designed to be where workshops or any kind of the events proposed by the clients proposed.
The third zone has the wooden steps leading up to the second floor. The stairway is designed to be on a scale where people can walk past or sit down to work or lounge. The landings are also designed to have an additional product display functionality. The last zone is the cafe named ‘Ve/la’ located on the second floor where visitors can enjoy a cup of coffee while browsing the store’s eclectic products.
“The design attempts to answer to the demands of users who are also art lovers, and we try to achieve that through working with the right people,” Manatspong told art4d that the project is more complete because the owner has a good team. ‘They have such great trust in us’. That’s probably why the space of Mediums Sukhumvit 42 looks and feels so spectacular and wholesome. While the intention for the 24-hour opening hours has to be put on hold for the moment due to the pandemic situation, we believe that after everything winds down and things finally go back to normal, Mediums Sukhumvit 42’ blank canvas will be filled with colors and fun energy.
