United Overseas Bank (Sukhumwit)

A new office for UOB on the site of the previous bank at Phrom Phong. Design Architect Kohn Pederson Fox designed separate Pavilion and Tower blocks link at 4 levels by glazed bridges. The upper executive floors all have planted corner terraces overlooking the eastern skyline.

The facade geometry incorporates sloped and folded planes covered by a paired external fin unitised curtain wall system that adpats to the geometry at location. This resulted in more than 25 unique but related facade system types with a huge number of interface details resulting from the combination of these systems at meeting lines. This may be the most technically challenging unitised facade design yet in Bangkok.

Due to the large number of system types three separate performance tests were required, for the typical sloped and folded curtain wall, for the inclined facade to vertical facade interface with integral gutter, and for the glazed skylight roof of the Events Hall on top of the Pavilion.

Great focus was placed on the selection of glass with a twostorey full size Visual Mock-Up room being built on top of an existing UOB property car park. Eight combinations of vision and spandrel glass were put onto the VMU and viewing and selection made over several weeks of viewing and comment. In the end a selection was made that not only gives a perfect match between vision and spandrel glazing but on completion shows the end result matching the initial renderings almost perfectly.

The unitised facade incorporates louvred panels, removable panels, serrated unitised facade, blast proof glazing, glazed and solid canopies, high level planted terraces, semi-unitised facades, stone cladding, rooflights with integrated gutters

A 9m high blast proofed glass wall encloses the lobbies of both Tower and Pavilion whilst maintaining excellent transparency and integrating with the detailing of the typical facades above.

The doube fin strips of the curtain walls incorporate LED lighting strips and ceramic frit bands to give a more enclosed friendly atmosphere to the open plan offices. The double fin bands wrap the entire tower and pavilion providing a visual coherence between the two very different volumes.