Supermachine Studio

In the age of digital and internet, when everything is changing much quicker than we could ever imagine, financial institutions have been in center of discussions as one of the businesses that will have to heavily adapt to the new nature. As a first commercial bank in Thailand and currently one of the biggest, SCB (Siam Commercial Bank) has been aware of the need to critically transform the company’s gigantic organization. Recently, the Bank has been implementing a lot of new projects in different dimensions. One of them is to establish an internal training institution with the main goal of training and equipping different level of its employees with new knowledge for coping with the inevitable changes.

The SCB academy was decided to be placed on FL18 and 19 of the existing east tower on its headquarter complex in Ratchayothin area in Bangkok. It is meant to serve many level of employees from operation to management as there are as many as 20,000 people working in the complex. The 3,000 square meter facility is a combination of diverse “learning” spaces from classrooms to discussion pavilion to co-working and food work space.

Supermachine studio believes learning is infinite and taking place outside more than inside classrooms. Solutions or great ideas derive from creative interactions of co-workers orchestrated by critical but open minded influencers. Spaces for learning for us were design accordingly; an open field where great discussions and collaborations can happen in every corners.

The 1,500 square meter 18^th floor was turned into an welcoming lobby with 3 small transparent classrooms and large open collaborating areas in 2 opposite wings; food work space vs. non-food work space. As many configurations of seating as possible (from high stool to banquet to phone-booth) are implemented to accommodate different mode of collaborations and discussions. People are free to decide where choose where they want to study. A special element like a white board box where attendances can step up and write on 3 walls and a floor is also placed in one corner to challenge how they communicate with others. Spanning under ceiling on both wings are wooden maze ornament meant to link the vast space together. In a way, it is for people to play a little mind game while working; “Take a break, looking up and find the way out.”

The other half of the academy on 19^th floor are set to serve a more concentrating group work consisting of executive lounge, meeting capsules and additional classrooms. A special enclosed hall with briefing room is placed at the end of wing for special group training environment that will constantly re-programmed in the future. For discussion use, there are 2 giant whiteboards in the space. One is traditional but super large locating along a classroom corridor, the other is a smart whiteboard which allow people to share content from their devices.

The two floors are spatially connected by a new spiral staircase and conceptually connected by the ever-changing wall murals. The hexagonal wooden magnets are specially designed for people to freely play with. There are different sets of graphics on the 10,000 magnet pieces that people can creatively compose stories that will never repeat out of them.