GUBIC Headquarters – An Interior Architecture of Growth, Responsibility, and Return The GUBIC Headquarters transforms five adjacent shophouses in Phnom Penh into a unified five storey architecture and interior design office, conceived as a continuous interior landscape. Working within the narrow depth and repeated structural bays typical of the shophouse typology, the project reframes limitation as structure, translating existing rhythms into a calm sequence of interior thresholds. These transitions shape movement, privacy, and atmosphere, allowing the interior to read as one coherent workplace that supports daily operation and long-term meaning.
Urban Design & Architecture Design Awards 2027: Entries Open!
Take your work to the next level. Register Now…
Gold 🏆 Winner
Urban Design & Architecture Design Awards 2026
GUBIC Headquarters
Interior Design (Under Construction)
Firm
GUBIC Co., Ltd.
Architect/Designer
Sothea Kim
Design Team
Sothea Kim (Design Director), Sereyvathanak Saroun (Principal Architect), Design Team: Kimna Chhun, Lyheng Brok, Imsamnang Vanna, Sovannsoveacha Uon, Veasna Phat, Sopheakdey Pheap, Phuong Phum
Location
Phnom Penh
Country
Cambodia
Photographer/Copyright
©GUBIC
Interior design is approached as a living system that shapes behavior, well-being, and performance through everyday experience. Light is treated as an interior guide, moving gently through the depth of the building to connect spaces. A restrained palette of tactile local materials brings warmth and memory to the hand, allowing culture to be felt through touch, scale, and repetition. Interior elements, including walls, ceilings, built in furniture, and circulation, are composed to reinforce clarity, rhythm, and human proportion.
Spatial planning unfolds as a gradual interior journey. Public facing areas at the front welcome clients and visitors with openness, while deeper zones support focused studio work and collaboration. More intimate spaces for reflection, learning, and decision making are positioned toward the rear and upper levels, allowing privacy and pace to shift naturally across the sequence. Through this layered organization, five buildings are unified into one continuous interior environment that supports multiple modes of work without fragmentation.
At the heart of the project is a belief rooted in Khmer cultural values, that growth is earned through discipline, patience, and self-awareness. The interior is designed not only for efficiency, but for learning, reflection, and long-term responsibility. For leadership, the space supports clarity and thoughtful decisions shaped by humility and care. For the design team, it offers belonging while encouraging discipline, shared accountability, and pride in contribution. For visitors, the interior remains open and welcoming, fostering trust and connection.
Interior design is treated as a framework for daily life. Spaces for work, study, dialogue, creation, and rest are composed for endurance rather than visual impact, inviting occupants to stay longer, think deeper, and grow together. Cultural references are handled responsibly through abstraction, embedded in spatial hierarchy, rhythm, and atmosphere instead of literal form.
All interior decisions are guided by the GUBIC 8 Architectural Design Principles, Soul, Holistic Thinking, Feng Shui, Sustainability, Functionality, Aesthetic Integrity, Compliance, and Innovation, applied in a clear order of priority. Together, they ensure interior architecture remains culturally grounded, environmentally responsible, operationally clear, and human centered.
The GUBIC Headquarters expresses a quiet belief that interior design, at its highest purpose, supports growth through discipline, defines leadership through service, and transforms everyday work into meaningful places of contribution and belonging.