Facility Management in Refurbishing Old Office Buildings in Silom Road Area

Abstract

Bangkok, the city of eight million people, grows so fastly in the past few decades. The real estate business in Thailand has also risen steadily. The Facility management or FM is the significant task to keep up with existing building and properties. It has played the important role for buildings regarding the integrated processes within an organization to maintain and develop services that support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities. It is important to operate physical spaces and infrastructure to use the maximum benefit of building. After surveying buildings in Bangkok, there are still many old buildings in Bangkok remain. Demolishing and rebuilding new buildings are tough decision to make due to high investment. So many building decides to be kept and maintained. FM has become important role to take care of properly to manage and prevent potential risks from being deteriorated. This research will be focusing on the study of Facility management of old office buildings that are 20 years and higher in Bangkok central business district area. The study will investigate how buildings are changed through time, and see factors that affected the development and improvement of old buildings, such as the financial, social and environment context, and owner's requirements. Guidelines to develop or refurbish old buildings will be sought as outcome. It is expected the finding will be useful to the building owners to be used old buildings more effectively. Refurbished buildings can respond to changes and create more value for the building. It is much better than to have old buildings fill in city voids useless, but bringing city to life again.