Siam City Cement aims to produce premium cement products, and that is also the main concept for the decor of its new office at Colume Building on Bangkok's Sathorn road.

The design of the new head office, which combines the commercial concepts of the cement business and modern lifestyles, aims to challenge Siam City Cement (SCCC) customers when they visit, according to the company's executive vice president of customer relationships, Chantana Sukumanont, who designed the office.

The first impression for visitors to SCCC's seventh-floor office is the open space joining the seventh and eighth floors of the building, and the flight of stairs connecting the two levels.

Chantana said she decided to lose about 100 square metres of floor space to provide the open space between the floors to give a feeling of warm welcome, like arriving home.

Her choice of four colours - red, white, grey and black - to decorate the office relates to the company's business.

Red and white are the colours of the logo, which uses red for an eagle insignia and white as its background. Grey is the colour of SCCC's Swiss parent company Holcim and also represents its main business - cement. Black is a mid-colour for modern styling.

"We combined the four colours to be our theme for decorating the office under a mix-and-match concept combining both modern and antique to represent our business, which is a joining together of Thai and Swiss owners," she said.

The office floor is finished using different cements that represent the company's business. The walls use conwood, another company product highlighting modern styling.

Chantana also selected the office furniture by combining modern pieces and antiques. The modern pieces give the feeling of simplicity, while the antiques add warmth.

"I went to Chiang Mai to find antique furniture to match the modern furniture that is made to my order using the four colours of the office concept," she said. Other office accessories also use only the four concept colours.

"We want to challenge our customers by proposing that our product is not simply cement, but it is a premium product. As a result, our office has to be presented as a workplace that will intelligently support our customers' demands.

The design, mixed and matched between modern and antique, together with the four-colour theme, gives a feeling of warm welcome and readiness for service under our business concept 'customer first'," she said. "It also uses our products to display what they can do for our customers."

Meanwhile, the company's staff is being encouraged to join the new office environment by dressing in modern styles. The old office would scarcely have been a place to encourage stylish clothing - it was located inside a cement plant.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation