52 HJS exhibition @ The Capital of Lotus!

OKMD (The Office of Knowledge Management & Development) of Thailand was established with the intention to transform the country into a knowledge-based society. Several sub organizations were set up to follow 'knowledge' in different sections. TCDC (one of our beloved clients) is one among them. The latest move of OKMD is the project to transform boring public libraries in the province to become more active and accessible by people of all kinds. The project is literally called 'Edible Knowledge Project' (โครงการศูนย์ความรู้กินได้). They set up a first prototype of the library of the future at Ubon Rachathani, a most east province of the country, bordering with Laos.

We were asked to design a very small exhibition for the gallery of the library for the launch of the project on last 24th July.

The exhibition is tailored-made as an outcome of extensive research of the local problems that they have been loosing competitiveness of their products and service without knowing exactly the reasons.

It is an attempt to give a tool for the local to understand how the world is changing through the lenses of knowledge and data so that you could come up with business strength. 'Hed Jung Sii Der, Jung Sii Me Okas" (เฮ็ดจัดสิเด้อ จังสิมีโอกาส) the name of the exhibition in Northeastern dialect, literally means 'do it like this, then you get a change'. The main content is about opportunities of products and services of a new group of the world population so called 'young 50' who have different lifestyle from those 50+ in the past.

The exhibition is rather difficult for us since there is not really an object to display, not key visual that could be striking. We began with the idea of 'searching around to find opportunity in an environment'. The image we had in mind was those of a forest, where ever you look around, it looks the same, but not exactly the same. If you want to find something, you really have to search for it. These are our conceptual models.

Then we got very much inspired by the local tradition of silk. The city is named 'Ubon Rachathani' - the capital of Lotus flower. They have a silk pattern called Lotus pattern here.

The we were trying to make it more 3-dimensional patterns.

We used a very simple and basic materials of EVA (the one we tried to use in Architects'06 exhibition, but did not succeed.) Besides using it for the most common sandals, it is so cheap and so simple that it is available almost every classroom for kid' s art projects. We wanted to use the very common materials in a different approach from what the locals are accustom with. Here is our first 1-1 mock-up of the wall made in the local silk lotus pattern:

We used different colors on each side, so seeing from one side, it will be totally one color, the other side will be totally another depend on your 'point of view'.

Then we searched for more EVA and found several colors available... too nice to resist.

The walls are to house all the information about the 'young 50' who will play a powerful buyers in our globe in the near future. The walls are curvy so that they are more stable. And also we try to create an environment that visitors will always be 'held' in this small exhibition without seeing clearly outside, the curvy walls form the directions and sequences of the exhibition.


Our 1:20 model:

The 2nd 1-1 mock-up. The EVA stripes are basically woven into the very slim steel frames..

The gradient effects of colors that we wanted!

The overall graphic of the exhibition is lead by Amnaj Suriyawongkul and Chatnarong Jinsupatada.

Some of the information is in the form of movie clips, so we had to provide also some LCD displays. Thanks to Buravich, our super contractor of the exhibition for helping us a lot on those small details.

Few weeks ago, we all went to Ubon Rachathani for the set up.

Testing the information panels.

Ready to weave...

Although we had a lot of workers from the contractor, we all wanted to 'weave' them with our hands too, a lot of fun indeed.

Final touch of all the small details, Purich is the king in this realm.

After one full day, we completed the set up. :)

Here it is:


We tried to film the scene of the exhibition because it is almost impossible to take a photo and understand the sequence.

However if you want to see more images, please visit our website. :) And if you have a chance to pass by the Capital of Lotus, please visit the just face-life public library, it is not later than this coming October, you will see the exhibition too. Enjoy!

Continue Reading

51 Thai Yo - 太陽 - ไทยโย

Few days ago, we just dismantled our first exhibition & exhibition design at Bangkok Art & Culture Center - BACC - (the only and recently opened contemporary art museum in Bangkok).

The exhibition, organized by Ministry of Culture and Bangkok University Creative Center (BUCC), aims to emphasize on cultural exchanges between Japan & Thailand via the works of Thai artists and designers which somehow are related to Japanese culture


The difficulty of this exhibition is to display both art and design items in the gallery space which is mainly designed for 'Modern Art'. How to put them together? Moreover, as usual, the budget and schedule are very tight -_-". We come up with the structure to define the space for design items, while leaving the art pieces in the space of the gallery in between the structure.


The main image of the exhibition is this small houses altogether composing a picture of 'a village' - could be Japanese or Thai. Each house is to house small design objects upon category. Originally we wanted to use a super common, generic tent structure used in any temporary situation here in Thailand. However, to rent for more than one month during our exhibition periods (4 March - 8 April) the tent is not cheaper than custom made one with a very light metal structure. So we did design several sizes of the houses upon the objects inside.


The rows of the houses create a kind of 'urban' space in between, where all the major art pieces are displayed.


Since the budget is extremely tight, we had to come up with a very cheap materials for the house walls. We finally end up with simple long white paper sheets which is less than 10 Bhat per sq.m. including the installing cost. Also white paper has a strong root in Japanese architecture. However the space wrapped with white paper with a very simple and light tectonic as we do here is very different from the way Japanese would do. Perhaps this is a very Thai tectonic... :)

We did some experiments at all(zone) with the generic rental tent structure.


At night, the look from outside is not bad. But unfortunately the gallery space is not that dark (the 8th floor is the space with a lot of uncontrollable natural lights -_-"). So the effect did not really happen at the actual exhibition. Also at the beginning we wanted to weave the paper sheets to give more strength, but the process was too long and the paper itself got wrinkled.


We got Tanakul Workgroup, our super contractor, to do this urgent and low budget work again. Thanks to them. During the set up, to have the structures without papers are not bad too.... next time then.


Besides the super workers from Tanakul, we had to supervise and help installing a lot during those 3-4 days. Thanks to Purich and his friends Ohm, Ken and Pik for helping us too.


After the exhibition was more or less completed, someone died. :o

On the opening day, the exhibition was promoted around Pathumwan intersection where BACC is located. The overall graphic design of the exhibition is the works of Practical Studio.


At the opening party, apart from Minister of Culture, and all the big guys in the ministry, we had a very famous super classic singer, Suthep Wongkamheng and a very famous contemporary singer Pod Modern Dog, singing some Japanese & Thai songs (they work in Japan) with our 'paper houses' as a background.


At the entrance of the exhibition.


The first house of 4,000 manga books by Thai cartoonists.



The overall ambient of the exhibition.


The space out of the houses is for the art pieces. All the art pieces are handle by Supernormal Studio. It was the first time we worked with them, and they are great!


At the entrance of each house, visitors have to get through the sheets of paper, the same experience as getting through Noren (暖簾) in front of an entrance in Japan. The height of the noren define the way the interior space is displayed from outside the house.


The design objects displayed inside the 'paper houses'. The side 'doors' connecting the houses are to lead the visitors from one house to another transversally.



The installation of wHY architecture & Kulapat Yantrasast. The 2LDK in Japanese apartment system.


The installation of Kris Manopimok, a lighting designer of LD 49. He also helped us a lot for the overall lighting design of this exhibition.


The art pieces of Navin Ravanchaikul and Yuri Kensaku.


The dress from banana leaf as an art work of Chakkrit Chimnok.


The latest collection of a fashion designer 'Thirst' brand. They established this brand specifically for Japanese market. Pretty cool indeed.


Actually all(zone) also displayed our work in the exhibition too, but this will be another post then.

We had a great fun and were extremely tired of the exhibition, however, we met a lot of interesting people. Thanks to the key player BUCC for the overall exhibition too. :) Until next time.

Continue Reading