Tallest Thai building unveiled

MahaNakhon. Source: Wikimedia

MahaNakhon, the tallest Thai building, has been officially opened with a light and sound show. Its signature spiral ribbon of cubes make the structure look like a pixelated picture.

Beams hit the 314-metre building and shone towards the sky from the vast structure as developer Pace Development Corp unveiled the project on Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra Road in Silom.

CEO Sorapoj Techakraisri said the mixed-use building consisted of homes, hotel, a viewpoint on its 77th floor with a “sky-tray” glass floor which is not for visitors with vertigo and a seven-storey mall called the ManaNakhon CUBE and 1,000-square-metre activity ground.

Most of the building will apparently be in full operation by next year.

The previous tallest building was the 304-metre Baiyoke Tower II in Ratchathewi which ruled for about 20 years.

But it might not hold the crown as Thailand’s tallest building for long as the Rama IX Super Tower is proposed to be built in 2019 and at 615 metres tall, it would be almost twice the size of the MahaNakhon.

Scheeren was the architect behind Beijing’s CCTV tower and Interlace in Singapore.

Individual floors stick out of the silhouette. Scheeren said: “Bangkok revealed itself as a place co-existing simultaneously between a presence of an incredibly strong past and yet a commitment to a very futuristic and fearless relationship to urbanity.”

Ritz-Carlton is set to be the hotelier behind the 200-odd apartments with prices starting at about US$1.2 million.

The most expensive homes are rumoured to cost more than US$17 million, making it one of the most expensive places to live in the capital.

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture, founded by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, announced plans for the building in 2009, but the final design was completed by the international firm Büro Ole Scheeren. The firm teamed up with Thai property developer PACE Development with the building reportedly costing around 18 billion baht (US$520 million).

PACE said it hoped to sell some of the hotel space and observation decks to a Thai real-estate investment trust in 2017, the Bangkok Post reported. Luxury food store Dean & Deluca is also expected to open a branch in the structure.