PTT LNG Flora Exhibition Hall (อาคารนิทรรศน์พรรณพฤกษา)

The Flora Exhibition Hall stands in PTT LNG's second LNG receiving terminal, on the coast at Map Ta Phut (Rayong Province), in the locality of Nong Fab. According to the design office TK Studio, PTT LNG acquired 29.7 hectares near the shoreline there: 21.6 hectares for the transfer, storage and regasification of liquefied natural gas, and 8.1 hectares for the office zone, where the building stands. The place name refers to a brackish swamp dominated by the fab shrub (Hymenocardia punctata); the land, largely filled in, kept only small patches of it, which the project set out to restore.

The guiding idea is to turn an industrial waste into an environmental benefit. When LNG, stored at about -160 °C, is regasified it gives up its cold; the surplus chilled water, which would otherwise have gone into the tropical sea, now feeds the building's air conditioning and the atrium. Architect A49 gives 2022 as the year of completion; TK Studio, in charge of the landscape, gives 20 September 2022 for the terminal. Several 49 Group firms worked on the building: architecture, structure, engineering, interiors, lighting, landscape and graphics.

Free photographs of the atrium date from February 2023, and the daily Thansettakij counted 2,000 to 5,000 visitors a day at the end of April 2023, admitted in rotations at peak times. PTT LNG presents the hall as a community initiative and as the world's first use of LNG cold to grow temperate flowers. The company had already launched, in 2016 at its first terminal, a 30 MW power unit project that exploits this cold.

According to TK Studio, the office building is a large round structure with a glass dome at its centre; it follows Thailand's TREES standard for energy and environmental performance, and the daily Daily News credits it with the Platinum level, the highest of the national green-building label. The climatic atrium opens beneath the dome. A49 states that its structure is made of connected steel tubes 250 mm and 160 mm in diameter, which carry the weight of the glass and other loads, resist wind and allow for the temperature difference between inside and outside.

Photographs published on Wikimedia Commons show a lattice of white tubes forming triangular meshes above terraced planting beds, with office levels and glazed façades looking onto the atrium. The architect explains that the overall form draws on the interior of an in-ground LNG tank and that a green roof spirals down to the ground to blend the building into its site. In the 8.1-hectare office zone, buildings take up 14% of the area, parking and circulation 26%, the retention pond 17% and wooded landscape 43%.

The atrium shows temperate-climate flowers. The tulip is its emblem: PTT LNG's official site cites tulips from a Thai farm, sold at the shop and handed to some groups. The press also mentions hydrangeas, daffodils and lilies. According to Thansettakij (27 April 2023), a permanent area brings together deciduous trees (birch, magnolia, maple) and seasonal flowering shrubs, while display beds change every month.

Floral Daily, drawing on Farmers Weekly, reports that the LNG cold keeps the interior at about 15 °C; visitors report 12 to 21 °C. For the cold-climate flowers grown with this cold, Thansettakij quotes about 3 million flowers a year for some 10 million baht: this is a PTT figure. The official site also mentions Akihime strawberries (Harumiki) sold on site; PTT grows them year-round, with the same cold, in a greenhouse at Ban Mab Kha.

The hall occupies the office zone of the terminal, on Rong Pui Road in Map Ta Phut. Access is controlled: according to PTT LNG, small groups arriving by private car (fewer than ten people) may enter without booking, while larger groups book online and send a visit letter. At the gate, visitors report that ID is requested and a badge issued. A group visit lasts about an hour to an hour and a half.

Besides the atrium, visitors describe a café, a shop selling flowers and strawberries, an energy learning centre with a 360-degree video dome and a nature trail with a lawn, a weeping fig and areas of peat-swamp and paperbark forest. Because the beds change every month, it is worth checking what is in bloom with PTT LNG before travelling.