Here's an email interview with Paravi Wongchirachai, Deputy Managing Director and Chief Curator of TCDC on the exhibit Keeping Up: Modern Thai Architecture 1967-1987. I went there and it's really good. The models are gorgeous and so is the artwork. I wish some of the captions had been a bit more precise, though. I recommend buying the accompanying booklet, which is only B200 at the TCDC store.

Everything (every hotel, mall, condo) today bills itself as "modern" (or minimalist/contemporary). There's probably a lot of confusion as to what modern really means. Could you define what "modern" means in the context of this exhibit?

It’s the usual thing. Boys from good families go abroad to study and come back with a taste for what’s fashionable at the time. In this case, it was modernism.

Bangkok in the 60s, 70s and 80s had a lot of buildings in the modernist idiom. The primary colors, exposed concrete, structural debates were all there. But the issues were peculiarly Thai.

Which is why we call the architecture of the period “modern Thai”, and not “Thai modern”. You can see this clearly in the show at TCDC.

How many buildings are featured in the exhibit? Compared to other regional capitals (HK, KL, Singapore), how "rich" is Bangok in modern buildings?

Bangkok’s very rich, in comparison, I think. Ironically, we have the economic policies of the late dictator Field Marshal Sarit to thank for this architectural legacy. The 60s was a period of business growth and industrialization, leading to new city lifestyles, new tycoons eager to show off their corporate success, and of course new architects and engineers with modernist dreams.

A panel of senior architects from ASA (Association of Siamese Architects Under Royal Patronage) helped us select 11 buildings for the show. And the main curator of the show is TCDC’s Supamas Phahulo.

A book came out recently on Phnom Phen's modern (pre-Khmer Rouge) architecture. Furniture from that era has been selling like hot cakes in Bangok and yet, your exhibit is a first for Bangok. Why did it take so long for it to happen? Will there be a book to accompany it? Is there a sudden surge of interest for this kind of architecture?

Well, history shows us that design goes round and round in circles. Semantics aside, the past is always ‘out’, but retro is always ‘in’. We live in a world which assaults us with conflicting images, values and contexts. So we have to reinterpret the past, to make sense of the present.

Since we grew up with modernist buildings, we construed them to be part of the “stuff”, or ephemera, around us – nothing important. But it’s time to see them as part of the story of late 20th century Bangkok. You have to read the interviews in the exhibition catalogue, with the architects reminiscing on how they struggled with tropical climate, public backlashes against high-rises, and with just getting paid!

What are some of the early modern buildings in Bangkok that face destruction, that you know of? Is this exhibit also a call to conservation?

Building 9 of the Panabhandhu school on Ladphrao Road, a classic of Ongard Satrabhandhu’s, has already been torn down in fact. It’s one of my favorites, and a clear homage to Le Corbusier. Of course, Khun Pongkwan Sukwattana Lassus, has been campaigning for the preservation modern Thai architecture for some time now. And perhaps the city is ready to hear her call.

Which architects helped with this exhibit? Was Duangrit Bunnag involved? If yes, in what way? If not, who from ASA?

The show was sparked by Dr Sumet Jumsai, who has been pushing for years for a museum of modern Thai architecture. Well, who knows when that will happen. So we thought we could start with a small retrospective.

Many of the ideas of the show are based on the academic work of Professor Pussadee Tiptus, and her amazing 2-volume tome on architecture of the era Sathapanik Siam, peunthan bodbaht pholngan lae naew khid (B.E. 2475 – 2537), published by ASA. Even if you don’t read Thai, you can look at the great collection of images.

How do you like the new buildings being built these days? Do you think Bangkok is a beautiful city?

Bangkok is pretty ugly I think. But that is precisely our charm. We don’t pretend to be anything other than our own chaotic self. So we manage to transcend ugliness, because we’re genuine.

I’m always amazed at how many contemporary buildings completely ignore the issue of climate. I was recently taken to a brand new, premium, penthouse condo. One side of the condo was completely glass curtain-wall, single-glazed, facing west! Which means the whole space boils up every afternoon, unless you turn up the air conditioning.

Given the reality of global warming and shrinking energy resources, I think we need to pay attention to the fact that we live in the tropics. The modern Thai architects in the show were much more progressive in this sense. They studied seasonal wind flows and sun patterns, so they could orient the buildings for maximum comfort and minimum energy wastage.

I hope people will at least get this point from the show.