HAVE A LOOK AT THE STUDIO THAT WANTS TO FIND THE POSSIBILITY WITHIN EVERY LIMITATION, QUESTIONING THE STORIES BEHIND ALL PROJECTS, EVEN THE ‘NONSENSICAL THINGS’ IN THE DESIGN CONTEXT

TEXT: ARCHITECT NONSENSE
PHOTO CREDIT AS NOTED

(For Thai, press here)

WHO

We are designers who share the same belief that nonsensical things are possible within the context of design.

WHAT

A group of designers who like to compete in architectural design competitions where we can question, find answers and seek new possibilities in the realm of architectural design.

WHEN

Not that very long. We’ve just entered our third year together as a team.

WHERE

Our office is a small home office in Lamlukka, Pathumthani, Thailand.

WHY

We just enjoy the processes that architectural design entails and we’re happy every time we see people use the spaces we create, from the very beginning to the completion.

How would you describe your personal style?

There isn’t a specific style we would use to define ourselves because we all agree that we want to try to experiment and do things we’ve never done before. What we’ve developed so far is how we approach our work, and that still requires more trials and errors.

What is your inspiration and guiding principle for each creation?

We want every project that we design to be practical and possible within the limitations given. Our design is still pretty much us questioning the stories behind each project, from the context, location, users’ everyday behaviors, demands for spatial functionalities, and the fun we find in the process of working on each project.

For each project we submit to a competition, we often propose a certain idea or method to create a result that is either right or wrong, but is more of an initial creative substance that gets passed on to the people who get to see or read about our designs.

What is the project you are most proud of?

Probably the design we produced for the Abu Dhabi Flamingo Visitor Center design competition in 2020, for which we were one of the shortlisted projects selected by Buildner. And since the project is located in a foreign country, we had a lot of fun researching the geological data of the site, which is a wetland area in the middle of the desert, so it’s constantly faced with natural phenomena such as desert storms and so on. We also studied and found out that the area is a habitat for diverse living creatures, such as flamingoes, which is also one of the highlights of this destination. These findings led us to experiment with a collaborative design and work process, which has laid the groundwork for how Architects Nonsense continued to work ever since.

Designers often have this great sense when it comes to pairing materials such as wood and white or exposed concrete and black. As the people who associate themselves with the word ‘nonsense,’ could you give us an example of a material pairing?

Exposed concrete and wood.

What is your favorite part of the whole process?

At the beginning, when we develop the preliminary design and are looking for different possibilities.

If you could invite a ‘creative’ to coffee, who would you invite and why?

Nattanan Doungriwong from Wire Knot Studios, who is one of our acquaintances, we often have these bizarre conversations whenever we meet up for drinks. They’re nonsensical conversations most of the time, but many of them ended up being used in our works, including our collaboration with them for the design competition we worked on together under the name Jockey-Tschumi and Co.

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