Vikasa Headquarters in Bangkok by Enter Projects.

Designed by Enter Projects, Vikasa’s Bangkok headquarters injects tranquillity of nature into the middle of Thailand’s urban capital. The 450 square metre interior acts as a physical embodiment of the of internationally loved yoga brand’s ideals, symbolising mental and physical wellbeing, health and evolution.

Patrick Keane, Enter Projects Asia’s design director explains the architects aimed to “create a space which mimicked the natural world. The result is an oasis of tranquilly amongst the chaos of Bangkok”. The project, completed in 2020, includes a series of private and public yoga rooms, a lobby, and a bathroom, all of which are enclosed in a glass-clad, light-filled building.

Related: Fish Trap Bamboo House on Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan by Cheng-Tsung Feng.

The rigid, harsh geometries of the city are counterbalanced by the flowing free-form organic shape which winds its snake-like body through the rectangular passageways and rooms of the interior. The form becomes a shape-shifter, morphing from a communal seating area seamlessly into a hanging light fixture, before completely coating a room, local rattan falling down its walls like a cloak.

Light crawls through the small gaps between rattan strips, creating a soft-glow which maintains privacy and a relationship to the exterior. Each element of the design is made exclusively from natural local materials, the warm red glow of Thai hardwood creating protected, private enclaves when compared to the colder public passageways which feature rough black slate.

Related: Egg of the Universe South Eveleigh Yoga Studio by Brewer Architects.

[Images courtesy of Enter Projects. Photography by Edmund Sumner.]