[ShmaNews] TALA Awards 2024

We are thrilled to announce that Shma has received 4 Honor Awards at the TALA Awards 2024, hosted by the TALA Thai Association of Landscape Architects

1. SCOPE Promsri: Bangkok, Thailand by Scope Co.,Ltd.

Honor Award of Residential Complex

Scope Promsri is a premium low-rise condominium that excels in every aspect, from its prime location in the heart of the city on Soi Promsri—providing seamless connectivity to Phrom Phong, Thonglor, and Ekkamai—to its elegant yet luxurious design, embodying the International Premium concept tailored to urban living needs. The project's landscape design is uniquely crafted to reflect the identity of its residents by recreating the serene ambiance of Cenotes, Mexico's world-famous natural attractions, offering a daily escape into nature right within the development.

Upon entering Scope Promsri, you will immediately feel enveloped by the lush greenery of natural vegetation, with the shade of towering trees creating a sense of walking through a natural tunnel. This leads you to the project's central relaxation area, the Cenotes Court, designed under the concept of the Monolithic Jungle. The space features stone walls and an emerald-green swimming pool surrounded by verdant foliage, with openings that invite sunlight from above. The pool is designed for diverse functions, including a lap pool, jacuzzi seats, bubble jets, a feature waterfall, and an outdoor shower, catering to various resident lifestyles. Immersed in nature and open to the sky, the emerald water contrasts beautifully with the blue horizon, evoking the tranquil atmosphere of Cenote Dos Ojos.

2. Sky Forest Scape: Bangkok, Thailand by PMCU Co.,Ltd

Honor Award of Commercial Space?

Sky Forest Scape is a new type of public space on the roof for Bangkok. It is a part of the new mixed use development called ‘Siam Scape’ which is located at the heart of ‘Siam Square’ - a vibrant young-gen commercial district. This project is a part of the bigger masterplan that aims to revamp ‘Siam Square’ with more people-centric urban spaces including walking street, gathering places, and greenery.

On ground, ‘Bio Street’ connects people from the main walking street through a lush greenery that is designed as dry swale with porous paving to mitigate runoff water from the street. Series of lifts and escalators leads to the 10th floor.

Corner of this rectangular space is lifted to form a large amphitheatre and provide ample soil depth for forest trees grove to create a comfortable and cooling gathering spot for tropical climate. Strong linear lines from the architecture facade continue to landscape pavement to create a holistic space.

After the landscape was completed, It became a new gathering space of ‘Siam Square’ serving many activities throughout the day and the week. It can be a quiet chill-out space after classes, performance rehearsal stage, a tik tok dance background or a concert in the garden. This new rooftop public space is designed to cater for multi-function, open-end possibilities for the new generations to create.

3. The Standard, Hua Hin : Hua Hin, Thailand by Sansiri PLC

Honor Award of Hospitality?

The Standard Hua Hin, is designed to create an adult/family playground involving experiences around wellness and the reinvigorating of senses in an effortless, seductive, and playful green environment. Recognizing the demographics of Hua Hin, a popular and convenient get-away for Bangkok and other residents, The Standard is designated to be the new destination for an escape from the chaotic urban area.

Considering the site condition, the area was once full of trees and shrubs scattered around. Our main approach to the design is to preserve the forest and existing trees as much as possible. The intention is not to cut down trees and build buildings in other surrounding areas to preserve nature. As we follow the trees’ location on the site, the buildings are designed and located according to that and in the end creating a variety of organic spaces with small buildings placing around the trees. This allows us to store up to 234 trees, as well as a plan to use local species in every layer of forest floor to restore maritime forest ecology and also the beach forest environment to the project area.

The tree preservation process was a challenge that we had to cooperate with specialists. There are two approaches to the conservation of the original trees in this project, namely keeping the trees in their original locations encircling the trees to nurse in nurseries and reusing them in new locations in the project area.? We also evaluate the trees’ conditions and for those that need special care, we also develop tree protections and do check-ups every month.

The project also greatly values sharing appreciation for the design, lifestyle, food, music, and art. The deliberate, paired-down mid-century feel of the property, and furniture translated from the concept of Hua-Hin nostalgia by gathering the sense of traditions, mood, and atmosphere of the area with its playful slant that will offer a mix of calm and interactive activities. The Standard Hua Hin is a place engineered to initiate fun, emotional connections between adults while being inclusive of young children, starting from the main entrance leading down towards the beach at the other end, which concludes our main concept ‘Journey of the unexpected’

4. AIA East Gateway: Bangkok, Thailand by AIA Group

Honor Award of Institution/ Campus

As an extension to working life within the building, the surrounding landscape on the ground, on podiums, and sky balcony not only offer a relaxing atmosphere for people, but also provide areas to promote physical and mental well-being; such as outdoor exercise area featuring a vibrant red running track contrasted with greenery along 400 meters, an outdoor fitness, table tennis, indoor fitness, and even a saltwater swimming pool.

‘Bangna’ district has an elevation of only 0 to 0.5 meters above sea level. A rapidly growing economy with high construction density would result in lacking space to absorb water during rainfalls which leads to frequent flooding’ The AIA East Gateway building not only emphasizes well-being but is also dedicated to addressing the issue of flood-prone areas with nature-based solutions. The design ensures that the property can serve as a water retention area during heavy rainfall for 4 months and store up to 1,161.25 cubic meters of water. The significant key of the design is the natural retention pond and the bioswale, which not only enhance the ambiance of the surrounding area but also function as water retention areas for the project.

The natural retention ponds also serve as a rainwater harvesting area and upcycle the water. All of the green spaces within the project are designed as Rain Gardens capable of capturing and slowing down water flow. These gardens feature can also filter dust and contaminants before allowing the water to flow into natural ponds. This is achieved through long bioswales which are designed like streams amidst green vegetation. Those parts help to trap pollutants and slow down the water initially, then stored in rain harvesting tanks and undergo a nature-based purification process. The purified water is reused for various activities within the project, such as irrigating the plants.

We would like to thank our clients, collaborators, and team members for making these achievements possible. Congratulations to all award recipients!

Discover the full list of winners: https://bit.ly/4goDCvc