Modern Architectural Marvels in Bangkok
A visual guide from the Bangkok travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
From the Chong Nonsi skywalk, MahaNakhon looks like someone took an eraser to a 314-metre glass tower and left a pixelated spiral running down its side. Bangkok builds fast and builds tall, and the last fifteen years have given it an architecture worth crossing town for: Amanda Levete's aluminium-shingled Central Embassy, the tilted rainwater-harvesting lawn at Chulalongkorn Centenary Park, and the One Bangkok blocks rising over Rama IV. Most of it sits within a few stops of the others on the Skytrain, which makes a self-guided afternoon straightforward.
The towers
King Power MahaNakhon connects straight to BTS Chong Nonsi, and its 78th-floor SkyWalk, with an open deck and a glass floor tray, is usually billed as the highest public viewpoint in the country. Sunset slots usually sell out first, so book online. Across the river, ICONSIAM and the Magnolias Waterfront tower beside it are three minutes away on the Gold Line from Krung Thonburi. One Bangkok, the vast mixed-use district on Rama IV opposite Lumphini Park, has been opening in phases and is easiest to enter from MRT Lumphini. Baiyoke Tower II, the 1990s record-holder, still turns its observation deck near Pratunam.
Ground level
Not everything worth seeing is a tower. Central Embassy's shingled aluminium shell curls up from the Ploenchit skywalk, with the Open House library-bookshop-restaurant floor near the top. Chulalongkorn Centenary Park off Chamchuri Square is a tilted lawn engineered to hold monsoon runoff, and Benjakitti Forest Park behind Queen Sirikit MRT threads raised boardwalks through reclaimed wetland with the Asok skyline behind it. The Chao Phraya Sky Park turned an abandoned rail bridge into a short pedestrian crossing near Phra Pok Klao. For design specifically, TCDC occupies the restored 1940s Grand Postal Building on Charoen Krung and lets visitors up to the roof.