The Palace of the Celebrations: Forming Architectural Identity through Thai Craft

Abstract

I was immersed in the culture of Thailand from a young age, growing up in the former capital city, Ayutthaya. The capital of the Kingdom of Siam stands as a symbol of Thai traditions. Its architecture is well preserved and is found throughout the modern city. Still today, the city is the main venue for Thai cultural celebrations. Over the years, Thai architecture has adopted new meanings and purposes. The traditional architecture of the historical site is threatened by the development of the modern city that has lost the unique Thai characteristics. Incidentally, also cultural celebrations have decayed, developing into social gatherings and entertainment events while losing most of their links to the original cultural and spiritual purposes. This thesis addresses the issue of cultural loss by exploring a mythical place, The Palace of the Celebrations, as a space to experiment and re-think cultural identity through a utopian architecture. This thesis is an architectural speculation on an ideal place, evolving from an array of cultural references. The investigation focuses on a crafting technique specific to Thai cultural festivals. These are three traditional celebrations, Boon Bang Fai (Rocket fire), Loy Krathong (Floating basket), and Yi Peng (Lantern festival), which originate from the spiritual importance given to the sky, land, and water in Thai mythology and belief. Each of the three events is celebrated with a collective objectual making, respectively the Bang Fai (rocket), Krathong (basket), and Khom (lantern). This thesis is particularly interested in the Krathong, whose ancient folding technique informs the architecture of the palace. This research explores the technique through multiple analogue and digital tools that enabled creative handling of models with complex operations, moving beyond the material limitations of the original process. This experiment was also supported by a physical production, which culminated in the creation of a large-scale model, The Wall of Celebrations, to investigate the multiple sensorial dimensions of the enhanced technique.