Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2025
Bk Salon Restaurant
- A' Design Award 2025 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2025
- CLIENT: Phaithaya Banchakitikun
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 79,190
- Verification code 219D11D414 · Verify this award
About Bk Salon Restaurant
Bk Salon is a Thai fine dining restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. The design uses a cluster building layout that forms an open court inside, used as outdoor seating under the shade of trees. The facade is made of artificial rattan strands arranged in a pattern drawn from traditional Thai weaving, forming a curved three-dimensional surface that allows views into the interior. Inside, curved glass panels run from floor to ceiling. A cafe sits at the front, the main restaurant further inside, and a private dining area on the second floor.
Bk Salon Restaurant by Phaithaya Banchakitikun emerges from contemporary architectural discourse as a remarkable meditation on the boundaries between structure and atmosphere, permanence and ephemerality, geometric precision and organic expression. This Golden A' Design Award-winning work demonstrates exceptional facility in translating computational design methodologies into built form while maintaining profound sensitivity to experiential and poetic dimensions of architectural space. The composition of interlocking lattice canopies suggests influences from diverse sources including traditional textile arts, natural growth patterns observable in coral formations and cellular structures, and the mathematical elegance of parametric modeling, yet synthesizes these references into a wholly original architectural language. The technical achievement evident in the complex three-dimensional mesh structures speaks to sophisticated understanding of material behavior, structural engineering, and fabrication processes, with the resulting forms appearing to defy conventional expectations of architectural mass and weight. Thematically, the work appears to explore notions of hospitality as sanctuary and threshold, creating an intermediate realm between exterior urban environment and interior dining experience that filters, softens, and transforms the passage between public and private domains. The incorporation of mature trees within the architectural envelope suggests commitment to biophilic principles and recognition that meaningful architectural experience emerges from thoughtful integration of built and natural elements. The pristine white palette and luminous materiality evoke associations with purity, freshness, and cleanliness particularly appropriate for culinary contexts while simultaneously suggesting celestial or transcendent qualities that elevate the everyday act of dining into something approaching ritual significance. Viewers might contemplate how architecture can create experiential transformation through the manipulation of light, material, and enclosure, and what it means for built form to aspire toward the qualities of natural phenomena like clouds, foam, or woven fabric.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The project is a Thai restaurant in a fine dining format. The concept of the project design integrates architectural styles with a cluster building layout that creating an open court inside that serves as an outdoor seating area with a pleasant atmosphere under the shade of trees.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Each building is designed with different heights of space and facade, featuring both one-story and two-story buildings. From the exterior, the dimensions of the spaces are clearly visible, and when looking through the overlapping facades of the buildings that one can see the effect of transparency and opacity created by the woven facade.
- Tags
- Vernacular thai material, Traditional, Thai cultural woven product
- Production Technology
- The Facade of the building exterior is designed using artificial rattan strands with a pattern that reflects traditional Thai weaving. This creates a three-dimensional curved form allowing visibility through to the entire interior space of the building. For the interior walls of the functional area, the internal facade features fully curved glass panels that extend from the floor to the ceiling.
- Design Challenge
- During the process of refining details both before and during construction, the design team carefully studied detail options that best align with the main concept of the façade design. This included elements such as walkway surfaces, walkway edges, surrounding railings, as well as interior and landscape design aspects.
- Project Duration
- The project started in 2021 and finished in 2023. The project located on sathupradit road, Bangkok, Thailand.
- Operation Flow
- The project incorporates a variety of functions including a café at the front and a main restaurant located further inside. Both areas offer seating options both indoors and outdoors. Additionally, the second floor features a private dining area that can be adapted for a Chef’s Table experience.
The service zone is positioned on the left side of the project for convenient access from the loading area at the front. Special attention has been given to treating the façade in this area to ensure it remains unobtrusive when viewed from the front of the project. - Research
- During the design phase, the design team conducted research on both the building's form proportions and the overall composition arrangement to achieve the most suitable balance of building proportions and negative space for the project.
Additionally, great attention was given to the façade pattern. The process began with selecting the desired pattern and exploring weaving or interlocking techniques to ensure its feasibility with real materials. - Inspiration
- The form and facade of the building weave together Thai culture, from dining to various utensils such as sticky rice containers “Kratip” woven basket, round bamboo basket and traditional Thai woven products.