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M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Sumet Jumsai, 2018, © Sumet Jumsai
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Sumet Jumsai 書梅春塞
Pinna Indorf 翩娜．恩朵夫
Exterior perspective, British Council Building (1969–1970), Bangkok, Thailand 泰國曼谷英國文化協會大樓（1969至1970年）外部透視圖
[1969]
For Sumet Jumsai, architecture is both a rigorous practice of building and a means of exploring conceptual strands of regional and transnational discourse. Jumsai’s spatial and formal solutions draw out paradoxes in a single idea or culture, while also creating dialogue. In certain projects, he reinterprets influential architect Le Corbusier’s concept of a house as ‘a machine for living in’, seeking to express ‘the machine’ as more than a metaphor. He designed buildings with a mechanistic aesthetic, as the British high-tech architects did during the 1970s. But Jumsai humanises the machine with recognisable forms—be it a toy kit or a robot—which reflect what he describes as sanuk, a Thai concept of fun. Jumsai developed this approach in his design for the British Council’s first headquarters in Thailand. Dubbed ‘Bangkok’s British beatnik building’ by the South China Morning Post, it was the first major project by Jumsai’s firm DEC. (Dek means ‘kid’ in Thai.) Its central mass features large, round windows resembling the peace symbol used by the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and its second and roof levels— finished in grey mosaic tiles—seem to be supported by two massive red stair towers. The articulation of the building’s various elements make it look as if it had been constructed from a toy assembly kit.
In Search of Southeast Asia through the M+ Collections. M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong, 22 June–30 September 2018
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