In Bangkok, the emergence of New Brutalism architecture took place between the 1960s and 1970s. It was a time when the country’s development took place under American influence during the Cold War. Traditional architectural education from École des beaux-arts was questioned by new generation educators. It was a time when architecture students (those who were not the descendants of the country’s upper class) traveled abroad to pursue their studies before returning home to work as professional architects. The growth and expansion of the local economy (under America’s support) resulted in increasing demands for spaces that would accommodate new activities that the country had never seen, be they residential, religious or institutional buildings as well as modern office spaces.

Siri Apartment (1970) by Dan Wongprasat
Siri Apartment (1970) by Dan Wongprasat - The original idea behind the eccentric form of the building is basically a circle, Dan Wongprasat’s favorite shape, which appeared in many of the buildings he designed throughout his architectural career such as Ambassador Sukhumvit, Holiday Inn Silom or his own home.Nonetheless, that is not the only reason why the architecture of Siri Apartment looks the way it does. Dan is an architect who gives high regard to climatic conditions, and his architecture is often derived from its surrounding local climate as well as the idea of tropical architecture. The building with its circular floor plan hosts a massive void that maximizes the ventilation of every floor. This very same void provides an abundant amount of natural light within each unit. Parts of the building are set back to prevent the interior from being directly exposed to sunlight, automatically creating an outdoor living area in the form of a terrace. The circular plan also grants every unit equal access to the outside view.
The Foundation of the Islamic Centre of Thailand (1971) by Paichit Pongpanluk
The Foundation of the Islamic Centre of Thailand (1971) by Paichit Pongpanluk - Paichit Pongpanluk designed the building being fully aware of its limited budget. He began by figuring out a way to incorporate a modular system while finding the solutions in modern architecture that could be applied to the design of the building where interesting architectural characteristics reflected contemporary construction technologies.The result was a series of connected hexagonal plans that covered all the required functional demands and spaces. Each hexagon was designed to be 12-meters wide with a total number of 19 modules. The thin concrete shell of each module was constructed on the site with a column in the middle. The shape is reminiscent of a flower with six blooming petals while hidden in each column is a pipe used for draining rainwater from the roof.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Head Office) (1972, 1987) by Angelo Pastore and Gianni Siciliano of Interproject in collaboration with Sittart Thachalupat, an architect from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Head Office) (1972, 1987) by Angelo Pastore and Gianni Siciliano of Interproject in collaboration with Sittart Thachalupat, an architect from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. - The project began as a collaboration between Interproject, a team of architects from Rome led by Angelo Pastore, Gianni Siciliano and Sittart Thachalupat, the project architect from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. The primary drawing took two months to be completed in Rome before it was sent to Bangkok where the design and working drawing were finalized and used for the construction.Sittart Thachalupat, the project architect explains the idea behind the design concept of the building, “We agreed on the use of a circular core because its perceivable cylindrical form creates an interesting gimmick and a distinctive shape. You can imagine the interior space by looking at the building’s exterior structure, which makes the design even more special while the functionalities are all there as required.” Sittart believes that a good architecture is the one whose form reflects the interior characteristics.
Three-Column House (1975) by Nit Jarusorn
Three-Column House (1975) by Nit Jarusorn - The first draft Nit Jaruson proposed to the engineer and the owner of Three-Column House- Jirawudh Vanasup, was a four-column structure. After a considerable exchange of opinions, both Nit and Jirawudh agreed that such structure could obstruct the view of his parents’ house (situated on the same piece of land). The final decision was to eliminate the column that would cause such obstruction. “Let’s build a house with three columns,” was what Jirawudh said to Nit 41 years ago as he immediately began sketching the load transfer of the new structure on a piece of paper for the architect to see.
Boonnumsup House (1979) by Rungsan Torsuwan
Boonnumsup House (1979) by Rungsan Torsuwan - The brief given from Boonnum Boonnumsup, the house’s owner was for a house with a spacious residential area that could accommodate guests and a little gathering. The design had to be unique, with no presence of a hip roof whatsoever.At the particular time, Rungsan Torsuwan was working on the design of several branches of Kasikorn Bank. His work brought incredible success to the organization, which was attempting to use architecture as a tool to recreate its organizational identity. With the task being to design a house that had to be ‘unique and one of a kind,’ Rungsan did what he knew best and employed the very same architectural technique he used with the bank for the birth of Boonnumsup House.