NEXTOPIA wins the world’s top honor at MAPIC Awards 2026

BANGKOK (5 November 2026) – Siam Piwat Group has once again brought pride to Thailand on the international stage as NEXTOPIA, the prototype city of the future at Siam Paragon, was named the Best Refurbishment Project at the MAPIC Awards 2026. As one of the world’s most prestigious global accolades in retail real estate, the award honors outstanding space transformation projects that create tangible commercial value, while elevating the overall user experience. This milestone underscores Siam Piwat’s role as a game changer and a pioneer of forward-looking business models that turn bold visions into globally recognized realities.

The Best Refurbishment Project Award at the MAPIC Awards 2026 recognizes retail developments of all formats that have significantly transformed existing spaces to generate new economic value and maximize spatial efficiency. The judging panel conducted a comprehensive evaluation encompassing development quality, environmental harmony, community impact, customer appeal, tenant mix, and collaboration between developers, local authorities, and stakeholders across all sectors.

The key driving force behind NEXTOPIA’s world-class achievement is Siam Piwat’s paradigm shift, where sustainability is redefined and transformed into a shared-value business model, guided by the philosophy of “Together, we co-create for a better world” in response to today’s challenges of balancing environmental stewardship with economic growth. Launched at Siam Paragon in November 2025, NEXTOPIA’s “Co-Creation for Sustainable Lifestyle” model has made waves internationally, having been featured as a case study at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2026 in New York City, USA. This stands as definitive proof that the integration of sustainability into commerce is feasible, measurable, and capable of driving inclusive growth across all sectors.

Ms. Chadatip Chutrakul, Chief Executive Officer of Siam Piwat Group, stated, “Siam Piwat is a thought leader that never rests on its laurels. Every project we build must create new businesses that deliver meaningful value and mutual benefits to people and the environment, while helping our tenants and business partners to adapt and meet international sustainability standards toward Thailand’s 2050 net-zero target. We have seized this opportunity to establish an experimental sandbox centered on a sustainability-driven business model, connecting meaningful living with environmental conservation and energy efficiency, while mobilizing our tenants, partners, and customers to turn awareness into action and real behavioral change. We firmly believe that building a better world starts today, and that conviction is the origin of NEXTOPIA.”

To realize this vision, NEXTOPIA was designed as an ecosystem that not only makes sustainability intuitive and accessible in everyday life but also generates business value by giving all parties a platform to participate, share ownership, and enjoy mutual benefits across various dimensions, thereby advancing sustainability practices and fast-tracking the net-zero goal in step with business growth.

Over the course of two years, Siam Piwat transformed its vision into a 15,000-sq.m. zone at Siam Paragon and acted as both “investor” and “integrator” to unify cross-sector capabilities and expertise and transform complex sustainability challenges into something tangible and applicable to various contexts, including daily life, consumption, and business operations. Now brought to life, the space serves as a prototype and a sustainability model that like-minded partners from all sectors can learn from and refine to deliver tangible and continuous impact.

To realize this vision, Siam Piwat brought together more than 50 partners and business organizations to serve as founders. This synergy generated an exponential positive impact far greater than any single entity could achieve, establishing a robust ecosystem structured around three strategic pillars:

1) Founders’ Infrastructure Synergy: NEXTOPIA is co-creation model that enables the founding organizations to contribute according to their capabilities and expertise, spanning renewable energy, water stewardship, clean air, waste management, and sustainable building materials. Rather than being confined to laboratories, future innovations have been deployed and incorporated directly into actual retail spaces where visitors can see, touch, and engage with them daily. Grounded in the principle of leaving no one behind, the co-created space also features artworks produced with recycled materials by local artists and serves as a platform where disadvantaged individuals can translate their creativity and craftsmanship into commercial value and generate steady income, extending employment opportunities to rural communities.

2) Empowering Retailers and Food Operators: NEXTOPIA provides infrastructure and support systems for energy conservation and systematic waste management, enabling tenants to pilot and implement ESG principles into their retail operations without the cost of building their own systems, and even introduce these solutions across other branches. In addition, through ECOTOPIA zone, NEXTOPIA serves as a platform for over 110,000 eco-friendly products from more than 300 SMEs and local communities, while also inspiring consumers to spend with purpose in support of eco-conscious goods and local communities.

3) Turning Customers into Community Builders: Shifting the goal from building a customer base to cultivating sustainability advocates, NEXTOPIA invites daily visitors to become active co-creators under the concept of “Co-create for a Better Tomorrow,” with dedicated spaces for founders, co-creators, and the “Friends of NEXTOPIA” to host activities, exchange ideas, and build partnerships that translate sustainability into real-world practice.

The success of this concept was demonstrated within just one year. Beyond the MAPIC Award, NEXTOPIA became Thailand’s first multi-tenant retail space to achieve both EDGE Advanced certification and a 2-Star Fitwel Rating. In addition, the project has achieved remarkable environmental performance, with NEXTOPIA becoming the first retail space in Thailand to operate on 100% renewable energy across common areas and tenant spaces through the Metropolitan Electricity Authority’s Utility Green Tariff (UGT1) program. The project has also achieved its Zero Waste to Landfill target, while its design is projected to reduce energy use by 47% and water use by 35%, based on EDGE design-stage simulations compared with the EDGE base case reference.

From its opening through September 30, 2026, NEXTOPIA diverted more than 227,137 kilograms of waste to recycling, upcycling, and waste-to-energy systems, amounting to an avoided carbon footprint of 376,689 kgCO2e. NEXTOPIA has welcomed over 4.65 million visitors and hosted study visits for more than 200 organizations and 50 academic institutions as well as more than 150 events.     

Today, NEXTOPIA’s sustainability co-creation model has proven to be an internationally recognized game-changing blueprint, in which retail space is transformed into an inspiring destination that fuses creativity with innovation, turning sustainability into an engaging, accessible part of everyday life and sparking habit change. However, for Siam Piwat, given that the task of building a better future demands continuous learning and action, NEXTOPIA remains a sandbox where all partners will keep learning to refine and optimize ideas to ensure benefits for all.

Siam Piwat plans to scale this model across all six shopping centers in its portfolio, encompassing over 1.5 million square meters, as well as future developments, with the goal of propelling the group toward its net-zero targets and sharing this valuable blueprint with property developers worldwide to drive broader transformation globally.