TIME Hails ‘The Unusual Football Field’ by ‘AP Thailand’ One of 25 Best Inventions of 2016

Bangkok, Thailand — AP (Thailand)’s unusually-shaped football pitch in the midst of the Klong Toei community has been hailed by TIME magazine as one of 25 best inventions of 2016 worldwide. Thais can take pride in AP (Thailand) Public Company Limited, the leading developer of properties and premier innovator of residential functional space design, and the brains behind the new-concept AP Unusual Football Field in the Klong Toei community.

The inventions were shortlisted for their ability to make the world better. AP unusual football field is the result of channeling the company’s expertise in residential space design to give back to society under the AP Think Space concept. Following a survey of the Klong Toei community, AP Design Lab decided to turn waste areas in the area into space that would be of benefit to everyone in the community. The result is a couple of odd-shaped – L or zig zag-shaped, proof that a football field is not necessarily limited to a regular rectangle. It was a world’s first and a challenge to the way AP thinks in order to overcome traditional limits in space development through a different creative perspective. It has created a ‘valuable life space’ that has been useful for everyone in the community. It is an innovation in design like no other which deserves praise from the prestigious TIME magazine.

Mr. Pattaraphurit Rungjaturapat, Deputy Chief Corporate Image Officer, AP (Thailand), said, “During an annual internal discussion, we discussed ways and means to channel our expertise in space design into helping society so that people can live a better life. We ended up with the idea of designing something for the Klong Toei community with emphasis on turning untended or useless areas into something productive.”

“Many people wonder if a football field that is not in a rectangular shape is really playable. The problem was how to do it given the limitations, how to make it most practical. The two football fields was not just a result of thinking differently, it was a balanced design that brings the most flexibility and seamlessness to the community. The important thing is it must be usable without having to stick to the traditional shape.”

“The fact that TIME has selected AP Unusual Football Field as one of 25 best inventions of 2016 is beyond our wildest imagination. But on top of everything, the paramount achievement of this project is that what we created can really meet the needs of the community because the heart of our design philosophy is the end-user who benefited from the space we created. It is what we really intended to do just like the criteria TIME magazine used to select a best invention — it must make the world better.”