Bangkok Project Studio

ข้อมูลการติดต่อ, แผนที่และเส้นทาง,แบบฟอร์มการติดต่อ,เวลาเปิดและปิด, การบริการ,การให้คะแนนความพอใจในการบริการ,รูปภาพทั้งหมด,วิดีโอทั้งหมดและข่าวสารจาก Bangkok Project Studio, 192-193 soi sahamitr rimklong pra pa Road bangsue, Bangkok.

25/03/2026

I feel truly honored to have been invited to join the Fireside Chat at the Hong Kong International Cultural Summit 2026
as part of the welcome dinner where Suraya Al-Hassan, Director of M+,
introduced me and shared the reason why I was invited to speak

She said that in a time when the world is facing uncertainty

what we need
may not simply be architects

but humanitarians

those who think deeply about
the relationship between humans and nature and our responsibility within that relationship

While I was in conversation on stage
with Shirley Surya, Curator of Design and Architecture at M+,

the dialogue brought me back
to the beginning of my work

Elephant World
did not begin with an idea of material

but from a simple necessity
that “the elephant is hungry”

Architecture, therefore,
was not planned in advance

but slowly emerged
through learning
and living together

The three buildings
were not created as objects but to fill a gap of understanding

and to make visible the relationship between humans and elephants
that has existed for more than 400 years-a way of living where humans and elephants grow, work, and depend on each other as one

This is not something new but something that has always been there
only that we have not seen it.

And later, elephant dung bricks
were introduced to extend the architecture
not as a new material
but as a result of coexistence

In this process, many things I thought I already knew
had to be “unlearned”

so that I could “ relearn”
how to live together again

This conversation,
therefore,is not about giving answers

but about asking in a world like this

“ how can we remain human
and live together”

22/03/2026

Unlearning / Relearning / Coexistence

I am honored to have been invited to join a Fireside Chat with Shirley Surya at the Hong Kong Cultural Summit 2026 on March 22.

Before the conversation began, we spoke briefly. It brought me back to the beginning of the project-when nothing was clear, and everything had to be learned along the way.

The three buildings were not built at the same time. They were built one by one.Because of that, I stayed longer. I kept returning. I got to know the community more.Until today, I still go back. For me, the project is not finished.

This conversation is about unlearning what we think we know,
and relearning what has always been there, but we did not see.

In 2026, the question is simple:
how do we live together and with whom?

We may not need new answers.
We may need to learn how to see again.

And we believe we can coexist.

01/03/2026

The Walk is a path made of twisted rebar, bending back and forth, without handrails. It began with a single sentence from Khun Pete Phornprapha, the founder -He said,
“If someone falls, it would be funny. No one would get hurt. There is grass below, and it is not high.”

And then he said,“Just do it.”

From that simple courage, The Walk was born.

Since 2020 until today, it has been part of an art and music festival. Every year it changes color. It moves. It shifts its form. It never stays the same.

And until now, no one has fallen from The Walk.People of all ages come to climb it, to test their balance, to play.

This year, 2026, I return to The Walk once again.

Perhaps this time, we will see it differently , not only as a structure,
but as something that has grown together with Wonderfruit
and with the people who walk on it.

25/02/2026

The Elephant Museum has no walls.
The whole Kuy village is the museum.

I have returned here many times.
For me, architecture does not end when construction is finished.
What matters is how people use it, and how life continues around it.

Some things here are different from the first day I designed it.
That is normal. Places grow.

What makes me happy is seeing children come to learn.
Seeing them walk through the village, not just through a building.

When you sit with a Kuy grandmother and she teaches you to spin silk ,that is part of the museum.
When monks and villagers care for elephants together ,that is part of the museum.
When a baby elephant is weighed before seeing the veterinarian , that is also part of the museum.

Now there is an elephant hospital here.
There is care. There is responsibility. There is knowledge being passed on.

The Kuy people have lived with elephants for more than 400 years.
This is not an exhibition.
It is a way of life. It’s a culture ..that we have to protect.

My role as an architect is simple.
To create space that allows this culture to continue.

That is all.

17/02/2026

When I first arrived in the Kuy village, I thought I was there to design buildings for elephants. Later, I understood that I was there to learn from a culture.

At the beginning, I approached the project as an architect , thinking about structure, materials, and space.
Later , I realized that the center of this work was not architecture.
It was culture. What I found there did not need invention.It needed recognition.

Elephant World was not built only with concrete and brick.It was built with relationships.

Administrations may change.Policies may shift.But culture remains.
The elephants remain.The people remain.

For me, the real foundation of this project is not its buildings ,
it is the knowledge carried in everyday life.

16/02/2026

At first glance, the courtyard may appear unmanicured -even unused.
Yet this is not neglect. It is intention.

For more than 400 years, the Kuy mahouts have lived under the same roof as their elephants. Their relationship is not occupational, but familial - a life shared in faith, labor, and memory.

This courtyard hosts sacred ceremonies such as the Elephant Kathin and communal merit-making rituals. But it is not designed only for events.

Together with the community, we chose not to cut the grass unnecessarily. On ordinary days , without audience, without performance ,elephants walk in freely, graze, and rest here.

What may seem untidy to human eyes
is comfort and dignity for them.

Architecture, here, is not a stage.
It is shared ground.

Culture is not something we display.
It is something we protect.

Cultural Courtyard - Elephant World

11/02/2026

The Artisans, Ayutthaya -the woman restaurant , was conceived in the years just before COVID. By the time the building was completed, the world had already entered a period of uncertainty. The economy everywhere was struggling.

Some of the glass blocks used in this building were reclaimed from another project of mine. The remaining glass blocks were purchased at a reduced price from the factory, as they were leftover stock - patterns that had been sitting in storage, waiting to be used.

With immense physical strength and even greater strength of spirit, the women of Ban Run , the co-founders of this restaurant ,brought this place into existence. It stands in a small subdistrict where nearly 70% of the population are women. What is remarkable is that many of them are single or widowed. Yet they have one another. They share smiles. They share food. They share life.

Today, seven years later, the intention of this restaurant and of these women continues to be passed on to every visitor who comes to eat.

For me, this place has become a sanctuary of the heart. I am one of those who return here, again and again, to let these women quietly heal to my spirit.

27/01/2026

Letting materials be themselves.

19/01/2026

I feel deeply honored that Shirley Surya, curator at M+, has finally visited Elephant World in person, especially as several works from this site have now entered M+’s permanent collection.

I would like to share some of the thoughts and reflections Shirley offered, which continue to resonate with me.

Visiting Elephant World is not a romantic experience in the way it is often presented through widely published photographs. Many structures have aged: wooden panels have fallen away, concrete pavements have warped as the soil eroded, and parts of the site have been reprogrammed beyond the architect’s control. This leads to an essential question: how should we assess a project that was completed five years ago, under strict budget constraints, in one of the poorest regions of Thailand?

Amid the realities of a project’s fate beyond the architect’s hands, what felt most heartening was witnessing the continued coexistence of the Kuy people and their elephants. The community’s sense of ownership and their use of the structures, for as long as circumstances allowed, remains deeply meaningful. Equally important is the steady stream of visitors to the observatory tower, which continues to provide economic support to the local community.

Most delightfully, Shirley spoke of sensing the remarkable thermal comfort within the heat, and the recovery of land use through the work, not as an image, but as lived experience.

For me, this visit is a reminder that the value of architecture does not lie in permanence or pristine conditions, but in enduring relationships: between people, animals, land, and time.

15/01/2026

Many may see these bamboo trays as too rough, and question why I did not choose a more refined pattern.

But what I seek to communicate
is not beauty born from delicacy,
but necessity.These trays were woven for real use. Rough, only to the extent required. The old timber assembled with them was not polished smooth,
made only as much as needed to stand.

When materials shaped only by necessity come together,
a pavilion emerges - one that holds the image of a large elephant
and becomes this work of art.

If I were to say that these trays
were woven by elderly women in a small community in Thailand,
would they appear more beautiful?
Or were they already beautiful
long before we knew their origin?

Presented under the theme “Inequalities” at Triennale Milano,
this pavilion reflects the ecological pressures that elephants face
amid shortages of food and water.

Elephants live within the limits of their ecosystem.They eat until they are full,
drink only what they need, and move according to the seasons.

This pavilion is not designed to explain elephants, but to invite visitors to look back at themselves- to consider what roughness, necessity,and living within limits might be telling us.

11/01/2026

Elephants have long memories.
They remember people, paths, and shared time.
They feel, they learn, and they live within deep social bonds.
In many Asian cultures, humans did not learn about elephants from books,
but from living close to them.
sharing the same rhythm of time.
The relationship between humans and elephants in Thailand is not about command.
It is about listening.
About patience.
About understanding that not everything can be controlled.
You cannot rush an elephant.
If you do not listen, it will not move.
If you do not understand, it will not follow.

For this reason, what comes from elephants - their labor, their time, even their “ DUNG”

is not a product of exploitation,
but a result of “ Long Coexistence”.

This is why elephant dung bricks are not merely material experiments.
They are ethical materials.

Born from relationship, not extraction.
And when material comes from relationship,

architecture becomes a reminder
that humans can still live with others
with dignity.

From present to past 🐘

2025–2026
Elephant Dung Brick Tower, Matalay, Khao Lak

2025
Elephant Chapel, Venice Architecture Biennale now has moved to Thai Temple in Milan.

2019
Dung Power Tower, Royal Academy of Arts, London

2018
Elephant Theatre, Versailles — Bangkok

09/01/2026

New year with Shirley, curator from M+ Museum. But for me, she is a friend, someone who feels like a mentor.
In many ways, I feel I am being curated by her all the time, which I truly enjoy.

Shirley spent the New Year with us and visited my works, including those still under construction:
the Gor Ya Tower, built entirely from elephant-dung bricks, and a group of small wooden houses made from 60-year-old reclaimed timber, once an abandoned rice granary, now reassembled by the sea.

For me, these buildings are filled with stories, stories of place, of coexistence, and of the communities behind them.
Materials speak quietly about shared lives,
if you are willing to listen.

Being in unfinished buildings with Shirley brought me back to questions that begin with “How”.

She does not ask why I do what I do, but invites me to explain how.

The bonus of this journey was my daughter and her friends,
who had the chance to sit and listen to Shirley.
They are very fortunate.
Thank you for spending the New Year with us.

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192-193 Soi Sahamitr Rimklong Pra Pa Road Bangsue
Bangkok
10800

เบอร์โทรศัพท์

0818128224

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http://bangkokprojectstudio.co/

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