PHTAA Living Design reinterprets oyster-farming concrete blocks for Scale fish butchery in Bangkok

Located in Bangkok, Scale sources fresh seafood from Surat Thani in southern Thailand. Rather than treating the retail space as the polished endpoint of a hidden supply chain, the project exposes the processes that usually remain behind the scenes. Preparation, butchery and distribution become part of the spatial experience, allowing visitors to follow more of the journey between source and consumption.

Natural light is central to this approach. Daylight is drawn through the space to improve visibility and hygiene around the working areas, but it also reinforces the project’s emphasis on transparency. Here, light operates as more than atmosphere: it becomes part of the way the fish butchery functions and is understood.

A concrete block carried from coast to city

The project’s most distinctive material element is a custom concrete block informed by those found in fishing communities around Surat Thani. In their original context, blocks cast using repurposed metal-sheet moulds are used both in local construction and as practical devices associated with oyster farming.

PHTAA Living Design reinterpreted this familiar object for an urban setting rather than transporting the original material directly to Bangkok. The blocks are produced with locally available materials, reducing transport while retaining a visual and conceptual connection to the coastal communities from which Scale’s seafood originates.

Repeated across walls and screens, the concrete units shift between enclosure and porosity. Their irregular openings allow light and glimpses to pass through, giving a utilitarian reference a new role within the fish butchery while keeping its origin legible.

From butchery to seafood bar

The programme continues beyond the interior into an outdoor seafood bar, where produce from the butchery can be prepared and eaten on site. This extension completes the sequence proposed by the project: seafood arrives from the south, is processed and displayed in view of customers, and can finally be consumed within the same place.

Through this combination of visible work, daylight and a material detail rooted in Surat Thani, Scale links a Bangkok commercial interior to the culture and infrastructure behind its food. The concrete block becomes the project’s most direct architectural expression of that relationship: familiar in origin, remade locally, and given a new function in the city.

Project Credits

Project: Scale (Fish Butchery)
Architecture and interior design: PHTAA Living Design / @phtaalivingdesign
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Photography: Santawat.Ch