Keeping Up: Modern Thai Architecture at TCDC on Jun 12
Submitted by Gregoire Glachant on June 5, 2008 - 10:58am.
I saw Keeping Up: Modern Thai Architecture from 1967-1987 at the architecture fair last month at Impact (ARCHITECT’08 Muang Thong Thani). It's everything I've always dreamed of seeing when it comes to Bangkok's modern architecture. While KL, HK, and Singapore have long been celebrating their modern architecture heritage, Bangkok seems to have recognized only its older (pre-1950s) constructions up until now
TCDC is going to fix that--and prove the once embattled exhibition hall and library is truly devoted to promotiing Thai creativity--with this new exhibition opening Jun 12 (through Sep 14). Interestingly, one of the exhibit's highlights is the Indra Hotel, designed by the uncle of today's hottest Thai architect, Duangrit Bunnag. In an interview coming out in BK Friday 13, Duangrit stated:
I don’t think I could have been anything but an architect. My dad was an electrical engineer and my grandfather was an artist. Most of all, my uncle was Chira Silpakanok, who built the Indra Hotel and the Scala Theatre. As a kid, I used to run around his home, where he also had his office. He influenced me to become an architect.
In the exhibit I saw, there was one glaring omission though--the AUA building. It's a beautiful piece of modern architecture with a truly tropical touch (it's open on a garden and the first floor is mostly open, it has the characteristic concrete elements in front of its windows to block direct sunlight).
But I was hoping the exhibit at ARCHITECT'08 was only a kind of preview. If it's the whole show, then I'm a bit disappointed. We'll see in a couple weeks at TCDC.
.jpg "Escape Routes: Nov14, 2008")
