---
title: "Neramit's 900 m² roof starts with a six-metre constraint"
locale: "en"
url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/neramit-six-meter-nonarchitecture-en"
markdown_url: "https://irz.fr/en/articles/neramit-six-meter-nonarchitecture-en.md"
category: "craft"
tags: ["architecture", "Bangkok Project Studio", "Neramit", "Wonderfruit", "reuse"]
published_at: "2026-08-28T09:10:00.000Z"
author: "Hugo Marchal"
translation: "https://irz.fr/fr/articles/neramit-six-metres-nonarchitecture-fr.md"
---

# Neramit's 900 m² roof starts with a six-metre constraint

Boonserm Premthada calls Neramit non-architecture. The useful move is more concrete: start from six-metre stock tubes, reduce offcuts and make one roof perform several jobs at once.

Boonserm Premthada calls Neramit **“non-architecture.”**[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

The phrase invites theory, while the building itself starts with something less glamorous: **a 100 × 100 mm square steel tube supplied in six-metre lengths**.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

Bangkok Project Studio designed the pavilion around that commercial dimension, using full tubes where possible and turning unavoidable cut pieces into the irregular edges of the roof.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)[2](https://www.core77.com/posts/145171/Bangkok-Project-Studios-Non-Architecture-Town-Hall-Pavilion)

The result spans 30 × 30 metres, or 900 m², at Thailand's Wonderfruit festival.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)[3](https://www.designboom.com/architecture/bangkok-project-studio-grand-gable-roof-pavilion-thailand-festival-boonserm-premthada-10-18-2023/) One large triangular roof becomes a common room, stage, shelter, resting place and gathering point.

The project becomes easier to read if “non-architecture” is set aside for a moment: it is really trying to **make fewer families of components perform more jobs**.

## Six metres

In many projects, geometry arrives before the material list: a shape is drawn first, and the workshop or supplier is then asked to make it real within whatever stock dimensions are available.

Neramit partly reverses that sequence.

Six-metre stock tubes become a design unit. Premthada says the structure was adjusted to use their full length and avoid scrap; when cuts were unavoidable, the remaining pieces were used to compose the uneven roof edge.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

That is not an independently audited “zero waste” claim. It is a documented project rule: **the form accepts the commercial dimension instead of treating leftovers as a construction-site problem**.

> **The supplier's dimension becomes an architectural dimension**
> Diagram showing a six-metre stock tube used whole in the structure, with unavoidable cuts reused along the roof edge
> - SIX METRES: A CONSTRAINT BEFORE A FORM
> - STOCK TUBE · 6 m
> - STRUCTURAL GRID
full length first
> - UNAVOIDABLE CUTS → IRREGULAR EDGE
> - The remainder is not hidden: it becomes part of the design.
> Neramit turns a catalogue length into a composition rule, then reuses remaining cuts in the roof edge.

The logic transfers easily. A furniture workshop can begin with a 2440 × 1220 mm sheet, timber construction with sections actually held in stock, and a printed part with the machine's usable volume; in each case the design starts from a known material limit rather than an abstract geometry.

In each case, the gain does not come from attaching an “ecological” shape afterwards. It comes from geometry knowing its supply chain from the beginning.

## One roof

Premthada describes Neramit as a “roofing building”: almost the entire building is one large roof.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

That reduction sounds misleading if it suggests a sheet placed over four posts, because almost every climatic and spatial decision has been folded back into the roof assembly.

The triangular roof drops low along both sides. It therefore works as cover and partial enclosure. Corrugated zinc sheets overlap and project unevenly, helping throw rain away from occupied areas while leaving routes for air and light.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)[2](https://www.core77.com/posts/145171/Bangkok-Project-Studios-Non-Architecture-Town-Hall-Pavilion)

> Illustration: Interior of Neramit showing the square-tube frame and the large open volume under the roof. The interior is defined almost entirely by frame and roof. Low sides provide shelter while ends and gaps keep the volume highly open. Credit: [Spaceshift Studio / Bangkok Project Studio](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio).

The roof therefore performs several jobs that architecture often separates, providing shade and rain protection while also acting as partial wall, ventilation device, light filter and visual identity.

That accumulation is probably the most concrete meaning of “non-architecture” here, because nothing has vanished so much as been compressed: several duties that might normally require separate layers are being asked of the same roof assembly.

## Let air through

Climate prevents that simplicity from being read as material economy alone, since a large metal envelope would quickly become uncomfortable if the same reduction also removed the routes for heat and air to escape.

A 900 m² metal roof closed to the ground would be an efficient way to make a tropical greenhouse. Neramit keeps its ends open and leaves gaps through the cover. Bangkok Project Studio attributes ventilation and layered daylight to these openings.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

The irregular geometry is therefore not merely an aesthetic produced by offcuts. It participates in the way rain, light and air cross the envelope.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)[3](https://www.designboom.com/architecture/bangkok-project-studio-grand-gable-roof-pavilion-thailand-festival-boonserm-premthada-10-18-2023/)

Precision matters, though. Published sources provide no airflow rate, measured indoor temperature or energy comparison with a conventional pavilion.

We can say the project **seeks** passive ventilation and shade through its open section. We cannot assign a quantified thermal benefit that public measurements do not provide.

## Building moves

The strangest part sits below the frame.

Neramit's roof structure is moveable.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio) A 2022 Wonderfruit review describes it as running on rails,[5](https://www.theransomnote.com/music/reviews/a-pre-xmas-weekend-of-music-architecture-food-ice-baths-and-discourse-wonderfruit-2022-review/) while festival communications presented it on wheels and as something visitors would collectively move in a daily ritual.[6](https://thefestivals.uk/wonderfruit-2022-food/)

Movement does not turn Neramit into a vehicle; it changes the relationship between covered and uncovered areas according to the activity, allowing spatial adjustment without building a different room for each programme.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

> Illustration: Architectural section of Neramit showing its large triangular roof and interior volume. The section explains how the pavilion changes use without closed rooms: it creates a gradient between a protected centre and open edges. Credit: [Bangkok Project Studio via ArchDaily](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio).

The detail relocates flexibility: many multi-purpose halls remain fixed and change through furniture, whereas here part of the **building itself** participates in reconfiguration.

Mobility still adds mechanical and structural cost that the publications do not quantify, which means Neramit cannot simply be declared easier or cheaper than a fixed pavilion.

It does suggest another definition of versatility: do not make a room for every programme; make a general envelope whose boundaries can shift with the programme.

## Twenty-four hours

The building tested that versatility in conditions less tidy than architectural renderings.

Wonderfruit used it as a 24-hour “town hall” during the 2022 festival.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio) Programming mixed music, rest, meetings and screenings; on Friday, for example, the official site directed visitors to Neramit for a film screening at 15:30.[4](https://wonderfruit.co/wonderpost/your-friday-highlights-2)

The same volume therefore had to work during a hot day as a place to pause and circulate, then accept sound, projection and lighting once the programme shifted after dark.

> **One roof, several regimes**
> - shade, rest, meetings and open circulation: Day
> - corrugated sheets + low edges throw water outward: Rain
> - talks, screenings, performances and socialising: Programme
> - light escapes through gaps and turns the volume into a lantern: Night
> The project reduces specialised rooms by asking the same envelope to change regime.

The versatility is not neutral like a white hall: Neramit's form remains forceful, and its spectacular central axis contrasts with compressed edges that already shape how people can occupy the volume.

The lesson is therefore not “one large room can do everything.” It is that **a structure can accept several programmes when its climatic and spatial functions do not depend on one precise programme**.

## Dismantle later

Premthada also justifies steel through its ability to be dismantled, reassembled and recycled.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

The claim still needs to be kept at the right scale. Recyclability is a material property, while a better whole-life environmental result would require evidence about fabrication, transport, use, dismantling and what actually happens to the steel afterwards.

We found no life-cycle assessment, measured reuse rate after dismantling, or comparison between this steel system and timber or bamboo. Saying steel is recyclable does not prove a structure performs better environmentally over its entire life.

The project demonstrates something narrower and more useful: **components were designed not to depend on an impossible-to-reuse bespoke geometry**. Tubes are standard, the system is assembled, and the project states that it can be dismantled.[1](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)

That logic returns to the six-metre constraint. A component retains more potential value after dismantling when it stays close to ordinary dimensions instead of becoming a one-off part with nowhere else to go.

## Draw less

Premthada's “non-architecture” is not a lack of design; if anything, Neramit depends on a fairly strict sequence of decisions about stock length, joints, overlap, section and movement.

Neramit is intensely designed: frame, roof edges, overlaps, section and movement all require precise decisions.

What decreases is something else: the number of arbitrary moves between available material and built form.

The tube is six metres, so the grid listens to six metres. A cut remains, so it can become an edge. A roof provides shelter, so it also drops to become a partial wall. Ventilation is needed, so edges stay open. The programme changes, so part of the cover can move.

The practical rule is less grand than the manifesto: **before adding another solution, ask whether an element already required by the project can perform the job**.

For a festival pavilion, that produces a spectacular frame. In furniture, a workshop or a small building, the result would probably be much less photogenic.

That is exactly why the idea is useful: it still works after the architecture photograph disappears.

## References

1. [Bangkok Project Studio via ArchDaily, Neramit Town-Hall Pavilion, 2023](https://www.archdaily.com/1008438/neramit-town-hall-pavilion-bangkok-project-studio)
2. [Core77, Bangkok Project Studio's Non-Architecture Town-Hall Pavilion, 26 August 2026](https://www.core77.com/posts/145171/Bangkok-Project-Studios-Non-Architecture-Town-Hall-Pavilion)
3. [designboom, Bangkok Project Studio constructs grand gable roof pavilion for Thailand festival, 18 October 2023](https://www.designboom.com/architecture/bangkok-project-studio-grand-gable-roof-pavilion-thailand-festival-boonserm-premthada-10-18-2023/)
4. [Wonderfruit, Your Friday Highlights, 16 December 2022](https://wonderfruit.co/wonderpost/your-friday-highlights-2)
5. [The Ransom Note, Wonderfruit 2022 review](https://www.theransomnote.com/music/reviews/a-pre-xmas-weekend-of-music-architecture-food-ice-baths-and-discourse-wonderfruit-2022-review/)
6. [TheFestivals, Wonderfruit 2022 programme announcement — Neramit](https://thefestivals.uk/wonderfruit-2022-food/)