VERSAILLES ARCHITECTURE
AND LANDSCAPE BIENNALE 2022
General Information
Project Name: Elephant Theatre
Architecture Firm: Bangkok Project Studio
Website: http://bangkokprojectstudio.co
Email: bangkokprojectstudio@gmail.com
Firm Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Year of completion: 2022
Gross Built Area: 42 Sqm.
Project Location: Cour de Paris – Ecuries du Roi City of Versailles, France
Lead Architect: Boonserm Premthada
Lead Architect email: bangkokprojectstudio@gmail.com
Media Provider
Photo credits: Spaceshift Studio
Photographer’s website: http://spaceshiftstudio.com
Photographer’s email: spaceshiftstudio@gmail.com
Additional Credits
Engineer: Preecha Suvaparpkul
Owner: La Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine
Construction Team: Mungkorn Furniture Co.,Ltd
Elephant Theatre
After the World Elephant Project was completed in 2020, I found that there were a lot of elephant droppings in Ta Klang Village in the village. Elephants are herbivorous animals and feed on Napier grass (Cenchrus purpureus), which makes their droppings fibrous. Villagers generally use elephant dung as fertilizer for crop cultivation, papermaking, and bio-gas. Even now, there is still a lot of elephant dung left on the roads. I have experimented in making elephant dung bricks to study their properties and possibility of using them as construction materials.
Thailand is a Southeast Asian country with abundant natural resources and biodiversity, gentle and friendly people. I try to include all of these qualities in the elephant brick.
Biennale Architecture and Landscape of Versailles 2022 will be my first opportunity to showcase the elephant bricks in a form of a theater that allows performers, audience, speakers and listeners to experience it. I would like to convey the meaning of equality, which is the fundamental principle of coexistence in every aspect and for every species.
Today, we live in a fast-paced world. We are always advancing toward modernity, giving little attention to our surroundings. We put ourselves at the center of the future. Elephant bricks invite us to think about the role of architecture, art, and humanity in the environment and in connection with other living things, to restore the balance and aesthetics of coexistence. The interdependence between humans and animals, friendship and mutual respect are becoming rarer and rarer every day.
My work will continue to tell the story of the rural society, environment, and natural resources, to make people recognize the importance of things they fail to see.
