FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

AP Thailand gives needy upcountry students a home in Bangkok

AP Thailand gives needy upcountry students a home in Bangkok

Property developer AP Thailand and Italy’s Fabrica Design have unveiled the AP Space Scholarship to house underprivileged youngsters furthering their studies in Bangkok.

It’s all explained in the exhibition “Spaces within Space: A Vision of Co-Living Generation”, continuing through Sunday at Woof Pack Bangkok on Salaldaeng Soi 1 off Rama IV Road. 
AP and Fabrica, the Benetton Group’s communication-research centre, are pursuing new ways of thinking in the way interiors are designed. Innovation in layout and design, they believe, can in turn improve the way people behave towards and work with one another. 
The Space Scholarship combines AP’s expertise in creating living spaces with Fabrica’s creative-thinking approach and will result in condominium units specially designed for the scholarship winners. 
Scholarships are “awarded” in square metres in a condominium managed by AP. The idea is to connect the lives of seven students from the provinces who have good study records but are short on fund and lack a place to live. Forced to move to Bangkok to pursue their university studies, they can now take advantage of this programme. 
The condominiums are both near universities – Aspire Rattanathibet 2 and Aspire Sathorn-Taksin.  
“For this project, AP aims to present the design of co-living of the future via a study and discovery of spaces hidden within space – what our team calls ‘the third space’ – and how we look at space in every dimension,” says AP (Thailand) marketing chief Sappasit Foongfaungchaveng. 
“We have the expertise in designing quality living space, especially life in a condominium, where every square inch is so valuable so you have to make the best use of it. 
“We’ve combined our expertise with that of Fabrica, whose conceptual strength is in the connection of cultural differences to bring about work that hits the right note with people around the world. We’ve worked together to create a living space for seven students from different provinces to live together happily. 
“AP attaches great importance to the design and construction of the room for the scholarship recipients,” Sappasit says. “That’s why our Design Lab chose to work with a world-class design studio like Fabrica, which is a hub for a new generation of thinkers and designers. The design director of the Treviso-based studio is Sam Baron, a famous personality in the international design community. He’s an idol for young designers and is recognised as one of the decade’s greatest designers. He helped us discover and make the best use of every square inch of the third space from the design overlapping which is also made to look beautiful and carries a strong identity.” 
“I admire AP for creating such a good social project like the Space Scholarship,” Baron says. “In my opinion this project will help improve the quality of life for youngsters in Thai society. The challenge was that you’ve got to design living spaces in a condominium for students to live together. These kids didn’t know each other before. They’re from different provinces, backgrounds and cultures. 
“We designed a room for four male kids and another room for three female kids. One design philosophy at Fabrica is the blending of cultural differences into one. One of the strengths allowing Fabrica to create work that resonates around the world is that we have young thinkers and designers of different races. They came together to create design work that clearly understands and reflects cultural value.”
Learn more at www.APThai.com/spacescholarship.

 

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