【Introduction of the project】
Iconsiam is the largest commercial complex in Thailand built in the redevelopment zone on the west bank of Chao Phraya River that runs through the center of Bangkok. The facility has two underground and eight above ground floors with a floor area of 366,000m² featuring an indoor floating market, the first Takashimaya store in Thailand, a riverside shopping street for luxury brands, and the first Apple Store in Thailand. Restaurants and cinema complex occupy the upper floors, with a large hall on the top-most floor. The project client is Iconsiam, a special-purpose company formed with investments from Siam Piwat, a royal retail developer, and the CP Group, a Thai conglomerate. Obayashi Corporationʼs highly rated track record over the years in Thailand as well as its technological capabilities helped it to be awarded the project. The construction started in January 2015, with an overall construction period of 52 months (including 18 months delay caused by large-scale changes to internal and external designs [the client, with its vision of “bringing the best of the world under one roof,” brought frequent design changes]). Total of 21 months were spent on underground work, while simultaneously carrying out aboveground work by employing inverted construction method in some parts, and the entire area was handed over as scheduled in May 2019.
The on-site operations were entirely handled by local Thailand staffs with the implementation of OJT by the 10 employees including the project director with long-term training experiences at Obayashi Corporation in Japan. The young employees also improved their knowledge and technical capabilities through training at the Thai Obayashi Training Center. Ultimately, a total of 87 Iconsiam project staffs were engaged in various difficult construction works, handled all the design changes, and they were able to handover the project with clientʼs full satisfaction.