Bangkok | The Thai capital is not short of shopping centers – from theme malls to mega malls. With Emsphere, a next-gen experience mall has now opened. Everything under one roof – from supermarkets to Ikea, car showrooms to a Citybeach rooftop bar.
Bangkok offers a wide selection of shopping centers and department stores, such as Central World, that are setting global standards. Central World operator Central Group is also very active in Europe as owner of Germany’s Kadewe Group (Kadewe Berlin, Alsterhaus Hamburg, Oberpollinger Munich), Selfridges in London, La Rinascente in Milan, Illum in Copenhagen and Globus in Switzerland.
While the Central Group is dominating the headlines in Europe, its competitor The Mall Group is getting all the attention in Bangkok with an extremely cool experience shopping center. On the sidelines of Infocomm Asia’s invidis digital signage track, invidis visited the 200,000 square meter inner-city mall.
Emsphere is the new hotspot in Bangkok. A shopping center embedded into a concrete skeleton structure that is attracting attention worldwide.
Located on the ground floor are dozens of restaurants and a huge gourmet market – a luxury food court with the best and most exclusive restaurant concepts in Thailand. Of course, some international chains such as Shakeshack and KFC are not to be missed. But most of the food places are highly awarded restaurants that offer their highlights in a cool atmosphere in the Emsphere Mall. Fine cuisine meets night market.
On the floors above, beauty brands, fashion and car showrooms are neatly separated. A Thai specialty: major car brands populate a vast amount of retail space with city showrooms in selected luxury malls in Bangkok. Whether Iconsiam or Paragon – Porsche, Volvo and BMW, as well as Chinese EV manufacturers, are present on the upper floors of shopping centers.
Ikea also moved into Emsphere with the world’s largest city branch. The offering is well known, but home delivery with electric tuk-tuks is a cultural adoption and investment in sustainability. In addition to shopping and F&B, entertainment is also a must at Emsphere. AEG operates an event arena with 6,000 seats on one of the top floors. Ed Sheeran performed here a concert at the opening in February.
The center is crowned with a “rooftop” concept. Covered but open on all sides, visitors and shoppers alike find bars and a city beach club. Ibiza meets Bangkok with an infinity pool, DJ and beach loungers. Only the tropical temperatures and the view of the always congested Sukhumvit Road remind visitors that they are in Bangkok. On the roof of what is probably the coolest shopping mall in the world.
