Bangkok Project Studio

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.

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.