Legend has it that Phaya Phan, King

Legend has it that Phaya Phan, King of the Phan Kingdom, had asked a hermit who lived in the forest near Phuphan to look after and educate his beautiful daughter, Nang Usa. The king built a tower for his daughter to live alone. The tower, later called 'Hor Nang Usa,' is a mushroom-shaped stone structure approximately 2 stories high. Its cantilevered roof was a large stone protruding from the structure. After spending a long time in solitude the lonely princess tried to find her knight on a white charger by floating a flower garland with a hidden message down the river. Prince Baros found the garland and went on a journey to look for this damsel in distress. They finally found each other and fell in love but living happily ever after did not come without obstacles. After Nang Usa moved to her prince's palace, his 10 jealous wives made sure that her days there were living hell. In the end Nang Usa could not take the bullying and decided to go back to her isolated life at 'Hor Nang Usa'.


Step into 2013 and the tragic legend of Usa and Baros has been reinterpreted in the design of Nat Motorsales’ head office located in Udonthani. The chief architect of M Space, Pakorn Mahapant presented his interpretation of Hor Nang Usa in a totally different direction from the legend. Instead of the tower being a place of confinement it is now a place for freedom. Wichai Feangtaweechok, the client, wanted NAT Motorsales’ office to be more than a workplace. He was looking for an architecture that inspires people, and a building that is always free to move around and one that must also become the city's landmark. In addition, parts of the building had to be used as a showroom and service center for Honda Big Wing motorcycles. Therefore, the theme of freedom is well suited to the lifestyle of Big Wing bikers.

The client's requirements and the Honda logo are incorporated into Hor Nang Usa's concept. The large stone balancing on a small foundation, which gives the illusion of the stone floating in midair, clearly conveys the architect's vision of conveying the feeling of lightness and freedom through architectural form. More importantly, the architect aims for the design to be extraordinary and stand out from its neighbors. The 4,800 square meters land situated at the corner of the bypass intersection is always busy. And, the architect tries to connect and bring this dynamic movement into the building. He does not want the building to be a formal one but more of a semi-open shelter, blurring the boundary between the interior and exterior.


The folding system is employed to create the building’s form. The first fold creates the office wing downstairs where a cafe is situated. The second fold makes up a gigantic 30-meter wing-shaped structure creating an activity plaza underneath. The last fold is where the Honda Big Wing showroom sits. The entire building does resemble a 2,500 square meter spaceship that has landed in the city suburb and is ready to take off at any moment.

Each of the three wings has its own connection to the 3 roads that surround the building. The architect tries to blend the structure with the surrounding context by limiting the building height to match that of the nearby shophouses. On one side, passers by will not feel out of place around here; they can wait for the local pickup taxi at it's stop in front of the office as they have always done before this spaceship of a building landed. Meanwhile from the frontal road, which is the main route from the airport, the gigantic wing is clearly visible from a great distance, acting as a city gate welcoming locals and tourists to Udonthani.

The architect raises the building and makes it look like it's floating from the ground. Each element of the building is interconnected freely and loosely thus making the space less compact and creating efficient natural ventilation. This ensures that meetings can be held on the open-air terrace. The space on the ground floor is rather open like that of a traditional Thai house where the ground level is cool and airy. The finishing surface of the open-air plaza is left as a bare concrete surface coated with a reddish stain in reference to the natural earth tones of the soil in the area. The surrounding walls of the plaza are made of uncoated steel sheets that are left to oxidize naturally, creating a rusty effect on its surface. A grass lawn that acts as a heat buffer also surrounds the building.


The building form is a bold one in itself. Mahapant uses only two materials for the finishing - aluminum composite panels to reflect the light, and color flakes to absorb light so as not to let the color distract the interest from the bold architectural form. Thus the colors from the nearby surroundings reflected onto the building have made it look like a huge canvas for the city to project its ever-changing urban scenography.

The outstanding features are credited to the vision of the building owner. His faith and belief in architecture has given free reign to the architect to explore design possibilities that have lead to the building itself becoming a work of art co-created by the owner and the architect, while the contractor and engineer contribute their skills into making the idea a reality. NAT Head Office will not be a mere sequel to the legend of Nang Usa but it is a legend of freedom that later generations will talk about for years to come.

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ตำนานกล่าวว่า พระยาพาน , พานกษัตริย์ของอาณาจักร ได้ถามฤาษีอาศัยอยู่ในป่าใกล้ภูพาน ดูแลและให้การศึกษาลูกสาวคนสวยของเขา นางสหรัฐอเมริกา กษัตริย์สร้างหอคอยสำหรับลูกสาวของเขาอยู่คนเดียว ทาวเวอร์ ต่อมาเรียกว่า " โฮร์นาง สหรัฐอเมริกา เป็นเห็ดที่มีรูปร่างโครงสร้างหินประมาณ 2 ชั้น สูงของ cantilevered หลังคามีหินขนาดใหญ่ยื่นออกมาจากโครงสร้าง หลังจากที่ใช้เวลานานในความสันโดษหญิงเหงา พยายามหาอัศวินของเธอบนชาร์จขาวลอยเป็นร้อยมาลัยด้วยการซ่อนข้อความลงในแม่น้ำ เจ้าชายบารอส เจอพวงมาลัยและไปในการเดินทางเพื่อตามหาหญิงสาวในความทุกข์