Autostella

From early period of the last century, automotive industry seems to have always influenced architecture (but not so much the other way around.)In modern history, different aspects of "automobile" has been inspiring architecture, whether as a material, shape, speed of the way cars are manufacturied. We have learned so much from the classic examples like Fiat’s Lingotto factory in Turin, (Mattè Trucco 1923) that has a test track on the roof top or BMW’s Central Factory in Leipzig (Zaha Hadid, 2005) that incorporates the process of car production and architecture into one.

Car is another architecture’s best friend.

Autostella is a small imported car showroom in Bangkok located around Eakamai-Ramintra expressway.  The types of cars Autostella keen to sell are those cute and fun to drive like Fiat 500 or some other small models from another Italian car maker, Alfa romeo. Autostella is not an automobile showroom with super high glass windows as commonly seen in Thailand.

We accessed the project by neglecting the stereotype aspects of automobile that people connect themselves with, which is “speed” and its “Dynamic” look. But it is designed like a small bakery and cafe’ that has small cars park right in the middle of the shops. Imagine a car is one of the furniture in the living room...Their potential clients are those lifestyle concerned people (who sometimes emotional buy rather than logical buy things.)

The flat and long red box is pushed-pulled, deformed and divided in to 4 different (but connected) rooms. Each room has windows in different sizes facing the street. Each of the window is different size according to the size of the room. The room can be decorated differently in the future to suit the mood of the new models of the cars coming-in in the future. “Why car showroom has to be single white room with non-differentiation all the time? It’s so boring.”

Team: Pitupong Chaowakul, Nuntawat Tussanasangsoon, Worawit Hongwiang, Marisa Boratisa