Seven shows celebrating Thai design at Bangkok Design Week
Described as the largest design festival in Southeast Asia, Bangkok Design Week returned for its ninth edition with 350 events across 140 venues throughout Thailand's capital city.
From a waterfall-like pavilion made with recycled fabric and a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional Thai crafts to a kinetic sculpture in an abandoned shopping mall, this year's Bangkok Design Week aimed to showcase design that was playful, adaptable and contemporary.
Under the theme of "DESIGN S/O/S: Secure Domestic / Outreach Opportunities / Sustainable Future", a key highlight of this year's programme was the shift toward business matching. By pairing designers with leading manufacturers, the festival aimed to demonstrate how Thai design could function as an economic engine.
Read on for the key installations and exhibitions picked by Dezeen from Bangkok Design Week:
High Line Bangkok by HAS Design and Research in collaboration with Urban Ally
Bangkok-based architecture studio HAS Design and Research, together with research and urban planning team Urban Ally, created the main pavilion for Bangkok Design Week this year at Bangkok City Hall Square.
An existing public lamppost was used as the main structure of the pavilion. Locally recycled Thai textiles were extended from the lamppost, forming a waterfall-like sloping shelter that served as a shaded gathering space.
More than 100 meters of fabric was bent to form a pipe-like curve with unique fish-scale details, designed to reflect the roof tiles of the Thai temple Wat Suthat Thepwararam next to the square.
The design aimed to explore the relationship between public infrastructure and tropical lifestyles while highlighting sustainability and cultural heritage.
Everything Comes from Something by ATT 19 Gallery
This exhibition by contemporary art gallery ATT 19 Gallery presented Chinese chairs, predominantly from the 19th-century Qing Dynasty, in dialogue with their contemporary reinterpretations by leading Thai and international designers.
The structural influence of the traditional Chinese chair was interwoven with distinctly Thai references in Suwan Kongkhunthian's First Chair, which was designed in 1975 and used Thai wood carving.
Porta armchair, designed by Teerapoj Teeropas in 2022, used age-old rattan joint techniques to create a seamless, uninterrupted form.
The exhibition emphasised that innovation does not require erasure, positioning redesign as a method of continuity while drawing a clear distinction between inspiration and replication.
KTK.Craft to Go by Kitt.Ta.Khon
Craft furniture brand Kitt.Ta.Khon proposed a new model to help ship handcrafted furniture across borders. Informed by the IKEA assembly model, KTK.Craft to Go featured modular parts with design touches, handwoven details and artisanal finishes that customers can assemble locally.
This exhibition also marked the debut of Kitt.Ta.Khon's KnockDown capsule collection. Chairs and stools were designed to be disassembled so they can be easily packaged, while preserving the brand's craftsmanship in weaving and hand-shaped rattan structure.
Kitt.Ta.Khon believes that craft knowledge of different forms can create designs that are easy to disassemble and reassemble, giving users across the globe access to artisanal designs.
Distill by Design PLANT
Over 30 designers were invited by design platform Design PLANT to work with local manufacturers in this exhibition to reinterpret Thai beliefs, craftsmanship and ways of life in the form of contemporary furniture and products.
B Seating, designed by Plural Designs for Mobella, reinterpreted the classic Thai bamboo daybed as a flexible spatial platform rather than a single piece of furniture. Bamboo materials and traditional construction techniques were preserved in the making, but complemented with steel and aluminium structures for strength and upholstered surfaces for comfort.
BEND transformed the wrought iron that is commonly found on gates and fences of Thai communities into a wall-mounted hanger. Designed by Wannathat Duangmak for Pornchai Steel, the modular system can be folded away when not in use, turning it into a wall decoration.
Something to Stay__On by students from ten universities across Thailand
Students from ten universities across Thailand presented sustainability-focused works at Bangkok's shopping mall Emsphere. Under the concept "Something to Stay_On", they were tasked to explore sustainability and urban resilience through the use of local and eco-friendly materials.
Faculty of Architecture students at Chulalongkorn University created a shaded refuge in response to Bangkok's heat. A small urban flower garden was sheltered by an oversized canopy made by tablecloth from Thailand's street food vendors. The floral form of the canopy can be manually opened up and closed off using a wheel panel.
Meanwhile, students from Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts of Thammasat University drew inspiration from the facades of Bangkok's shophouses and old buildings. They designed the back of a bench, using a combination of wrought iron sourced from different neighbourhoods across the city.
Mai Ya Rap (Dance) by Wit Pimpakanchanapong
Mai Ya Rap (Dance) is an eight-metre-tall kinetic sculpture, created by Thai artist Wit Pimpakanchanapong to capture the Bang Lamphu neighbourhood's festival spirit through light, colour, and sound.
The installation was exhibited in New World, an abandoned shopping mall located in the heart of Bang Lamphu in Bangkok's historical old city.
Instead of relying solely on electricity and motors, Pimpakanchanapong focused on mechanical systems, particularly the use of counterweights to reduce mechanical load. The sculpture consumed only 100 watts of electricity per hour — approximately the same amount of energy as a single flat-screen television.
OutTakes by VEIG, Hann, FARMGROUP and PBB&O
This exhibition allowed "unchosen designs (B-cuts)" to see the light of day. Four branding agencies – FARMGROUP and PBB&O from Thailand, as well as VEIG and Hann from South Korea – presented their B-cuts for real projects to reveal the behind-the-scenes of the design process.
Elements such as folders, filenames, and cursors were used as graphic motifs, creating the feeling of peeking into another designer's workspace. Visitors were invited to open the folder of each project and flip through the design process from briefing to the initial sketch and the selection of the final work.
"This exhibition creates a space where unselected ideas can return to speak, to shine, and to reconnect with the world beyond the folder," said Jay Jang, creative director of Seoul-based design consultancy VEIG.
"The alternative possibilities and unrealised directions documented in this exhibition offer insight into the designers' decision-making journeys," he added.
Bangkok Design Week ran from 29 Jan to 8 Feb in locations across the city. For more installations, talks and fairs in architecture and design, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
The post Seven shows celebrating Thai design at Bangkok Design Week appeared first on Dezeen.