Sansiri scales new high with best condo on Wireless Road

“Since acquiring the land six years ago, we considered how to develop the best condominium on Wireless Road,” Srettha Thavisin, president of the listed residential developer, said during an interview with The Nation last week.
The company decided that 98 Wireless should be based on the idea of developing a functional condominium with usable space of more than 150 square metres per unit, high ceilings of over 3 metres, while the design had to be timeless and the building had to be comfortable and convenient for owners, he said.
Meanwhile, the construction materials used have to meet the global standard and match the architecture and interior design, which is in classical Beaux-Arts style, he added.
“With my long experience in developing residential projects, especially condominiums, we wanted to develop a premium condominium that uses marble as the main building material, because of marble’s natural attractiveness for a living space.
“The final design of 98 Wireless has been inspired by Beaux-Arts style, with marble being extensively used in both the architecture and interior design,” Srettha explained.
He added that he and his staff paid several visits to the Carrara marble quarries in Italy, which produce the best marble in the world.
The architect and interior-design team finally selected Statuario marble, which has a special white and grey texture, for the master bathroom in all of the 77 condominium units, as well as for some of the interior design in the public areas.
Overall, Statuario marble is being used in up to 5,000 square metres of the building’s 28,000 square metres of usable area.
Other rooms, such as the second bathroom in each unit, use white Varakas marble from Greece, while the interior design in the public area and the building fa็ade uses Moleanos limestone from Portugal.
The interior design team has selected furniture and accessories from New York’s classic fashion designer Ralph Lauren to decorate all residential units and the public areas.

Green building concept
Not only is the developer’s focus on using construction materials that meet the highest standard, the 98 Wireless project was the first condominium in Thailand for which a developer sought Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the US Green Building Council.
Sansiri’s senior executive vice president for business development and its project development division (condominium), Uthai Uthaisangsuk, said the company decided to apply for LEED Silver certification at the outset of the project, as the intention is for 98 Wireless to be a sustainable building for the long term.
In order to qualify for LEED Silver accreditation, the company had to design the building using green construction materials, while its infrastructure, such as electricity and water systems, also had to match the LEED standard.
For example, the energy-saving system is designed to use an energy-plus programme, comprising: low-E double glazing that reduces sound, heat and UV from outside to the building; an air-conditioning system that uses the High-efficiency Variable Refrigerant Flow Air Condition System, to provide coolness to the building via low energy; an air-to-air head-recovery units (fresh air pre-cool) system; and reused heated water from a condenser via recovery units to pre-heat water for domestic use.
The design also provides for ventilation systems in the car park that reduce carbon-dioxide air pollution by up to 52.48 per cent compared with a standard car-park ventilation system, he said.
The overall energy-plus programme in the building provides an energy saving of up to 14.6 per cent compared with standard buildings that do not use such a programme.
Meanwhile, the water-supply system is designed to save up to 31.29 per cent-worth of water when compared to standard buildings without such a system.
As part of the system, the building will reuse water for watering the gardens, which in turn comprise local plants that need 25 per cent less water than other varieties.
Moreover, Uthai said the waste-management system during the construction process had been designed to recycle up to 75 per cent of waste material such as steel and concrete, and up to 25 per cent of all domestically produced waste once the units are occupied.
98 Wireless, which is located close to the mass-transit system, has also been designed to have a bicycle lane and bicycle park within the project.
According to research by the project’s LEED adviser, Meinhardt Group, the volume of fresh air in the building will be up to 30 per cent higher than in a normal building, making it a healthier place to live.
“Most of our design under LEED Silver certification has had to provide for a high quality of living for all our customers, so that they can live in the best environment in a sustainable building,” Uthai explained.
The prevailing trend for residential construction is to combine design, function and environment, which is a challenge that developers will have to meet for home-owners over the long term, he added.
With the integrated classic design by selecting quality construction materials from around the globe, functional design by a well-known architect and interior designer, and environmental design for sustainable building, 98 Wireless has already succeeded in selling 40 per cent of the total project value of Bt8.5 billion, even though it is still not open for official bookings, Uthai said.
Sansiri plans to open 98 Wireless up to official bookings in October, targeting both domestic and foreign buyers.
“We believe this project will raise the standard for building quality homes in the country, with the focus on design, function and environment, under the growing trend for sustainable building in the long term,” he added.

PROJECT DETAILS
 Developer: Sansiri
Architect: Design Worldwide Partnership
Interior design adviser: Anne Carson Designs
LEED adviser: Meinhardt
Project value: Bt8.5 billion
Price: Bt550,000 per square metre