Urban Tropical Housing Architecture The Met, Bangkok by WOHA

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Architectural Evening Skyline View The Met

The Met, designed by WOHA Singapore, is inspired by Thai forms – thai tiles, textiles and timber panelling, abstracted and used as a way to organise forms. The cladding, for instance, uses temple tiles as an inspiration, while the staggered arrangement of the balconies recalls the Thai teak staggered panelling on traditional houses.

Most tropical high-rise housing in developing countries is designed by consultants from temperate countries replicating cold-climate models. Rather than adopting models developed in temperate countries, with a strong separation of interior and exterior, The Met is designed as exploration about how the aspects of low-rise tropical housing can be applied to create outdoor-indoor spaces in the sky.

The design is an excellent attempt to open a skyscraper to the city and to allow its inhabitants to use the building as much as possible. A system of pass ways, sky-parks and swimming pools on upper levels forms a real vertical analogue of the city and creates a new quality of living. The wide use of greenery almost as an additional facede material is also an effective way to unite horizontal dimensions of the city with the verticality. The use of passive ways to save energy is also an important aspect of The Met.

The Met by WOHA has won the World’s Best Housing award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival Awards (WAF Awards) 2009. [images]

Architecture North Facade of The Met