CONCEPT
In Thailand, many people do not know much about the game and esport. They often misunderstand that game cannot be an actual sport. So this project is not about an esport arena that is made for gamers only but also everybody leading to the concept of “Urban life”. This urban life area is made for everyone to enjoy and to return a green area to the city. The user who comes to use this area will learn about esport and games passively. While a user who comes to use the game area will get stress relief from a heated competition.
By research and testing, I conclude that the esport arena layout should have been designed especially to respond the viewing angle and distance that not typical as same as the other sport. A factor that change the design of the esport arena layout is which game type will be played in the arena, how many players are supported, whether it will accommodate other activities than esport, and what is the main focus of the arena (e.g. watching experiece, amount of seating, servicing) these factor will determine the direction of the arena and make it special and outstanding from the other sports arenas which are not flexible as esport does.
In this project, I focus on the watching experience that includes the distance between the screen and seats, the angle, and the distorted vision. After studying, the results are this layout as shown below. By Dividing into 2 stands, the arena will be more flexible and serviceable. Each stand has no unacceptable seat which does not exceed the minimum and maximum distance between the screen and seat. it can be closed on one side for a smaller activity, from 3,318 seats to 1,659 seats. So it can hold more activities other than esport like a sport, concert, talkshow, product launch, etc. This will make the project more feasible in the long term.
Bird eye view
Apart from the arena, This project also has an incubation center which is a facility that provides a high-end technology, coaching, and training program to enhance the player potential to reach the global level. This facility is on the 2nd and 3rd floor which is inside the podium of the building. A lobby, canteen, and retail also here and can be access from a skywalk which is also one of the main entrances of the building. the ramp and slope wrapping around the podium give a seamless experience of the “Urban Life” area providing a city recreation space, from the ground floor to the top.
Podium plan (1st-4th floor plan)
Main ground floor Entrance. (from Rama I rd.)
Entrance from MBK shopping mall.
Entrance from the Pathumwan skywalk and National stadium skytrain station.
Incubation center.
Urban life area.
Above the podium starting from the 5th floor is the arena which can be accessed via a two gigantic oval-shaped lobby. On the 6th & 7th floor is the arena supporting zone containing a player room, practice room, media press, production room, office, server room and also a rehearsal room for activities aside from esport.
Arena plan (5th-11th floor plan)
Inside the arena.
The main structure of the arena consists of series of shear walls (red) which is a stair and elevator wall at the same time and a series of beams (yellow). the Y-shaped columns help in supporting the load of seating and reduce the size of the overall structure. The seating structure is a waffle slap that relieves the load that goes into each shear wall and Y-shaped column by acting itself as one of the main structures. After adding a hallway on each level, put the roof on the arena. the roof structure is a space truss that helps in reducing the thickness of the whole roof.
