The unique relationship between the people of Thailand and elephants dates back at least three centuries. Elephants were used in war and peace, and in rural villages were domesticated to the point where the beasts lived under the same roofs as humans, with their respective lives virtually inextricable.
Deforestation devastated that bond between elephants and the Kui people in northeast Thailand’s Surin Province, depriving both of food and medicinal plants. The province also incurred severe droughts. These events displaced the Kui and elephants to surrounding towns, begging for food or working in elephant camps.
Last month, as part of the government’s “Elephant World” plan that seeks a safe and prosperous reuniting of the Kui and elephants within their homeland, the Surin Provincial Administration Organization completed its Elephant Museum, which sits on a 5,400-sm site and used 480,000 handmade clay bricks in its construction.
Bangkok Project Studio, the museum’s architect, has incorporated handmade bricks for projects before, including the eight-meter-tall walls of the Kantana Film and Animation Institute, which opened in Nakhom Pathom, Thailand, in 2011; and more recently the Elephant Stadium pavilion at Elephant World in Surin, Thailand, completed in 2015.
The complex's curved walls provide visitors with different perspectives, depending on the time of day.
A MESSAGE OF HOPE
Visitors can move freely from one exhibit space to another through entries within the walls.
The Elephant Museum, built by Rattanachart Construction, Ltd., is divided into four sections. The first includes a reception area, exhibition room, library, seminar room, and shops for coffee and gifts. The other three sections feature exhibition spaces that touch on the relationship between the Thai people and elephants; the deforestation that places the elephants’ survival at risk; and a message of empowerment, where visitors can take pride in their culture.
The museum divides into four sections.
More than 200 elephants live in Surin Province, and the museum’s exhibits reiterate its people’s disapproval of animal cruelty and exploitation, while projecting hope for the future.
The museum, which was completed last month, is within a complex of buildings that includes a play area for elephants, a research center, and educational facilities. Visitors can circulate from one space to another through openings in arched walls. Indoor and outdoor areas allow for a variety of programming.
The museum includes a play area for elephants.
Related Stories
Cultural Facilities | Jul 19, 2015
SET Architects wins design competition for Holocaust Memorial
The design for the memorial in Bologna, Italy, is dominated by two large metal monolithic structures that represent the oppressive wooden bunks in concentration camps in Germany during World War II.
Cultural Facilities | Jul 17, 2015
Rojkind Arquitectos serves up concert hall on the rocks in Mexico
The same way Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim has put Bilbao on the map, architect Michel Rojkind hopes his design will be “an urban detonator capable of inciting modernity in the area.”
Cultural Facilities | Jul 16, 2015
Louisville group plans to build world's largest disco ball
The sphere would more than double the size of the current record holder.
Cultural Facilities | Jul 14, 2015
Massive exhibition space in Inner Mongolia replicates steppe landscape
To mimic the Central Asian steppe landscape of the Chinese province Inner Mongolia, Kuanlu Architects proposed the construction of an exhibition plaza that can be walked on.
Cultural Facilities | Jul 13, 2015
German architect proposes construction of mountain near Berlin
The architect wants to create the world’s largest man-made mountain, at 3,280 feet.
Cultural Facilities | Jul 9, 2015
Gehry's Eisenhower Memorial plan gets OK from D.C. planning commission
Despite the thumbs up, disputes over costs may keep the $142 million work from ever being built.
Smart Buildings | Jul 9, 2015
St. Petersburg Pier’s dramatic makeover gets green light from city officials
The Pier Park will be a platform for a multitude of smaller and more flexible programs and experiences for tourists and the local community.
Museums | Jun 28, 2015
Manhattan's New Museum debuts first museum-led incubator space
Part studio, part shared workplace, part lab, and part professional development program, NEW INC connects design with technology, the arts with the market, students with seasoned practitioners, and the museum with the world.
Museums | Jun 23, 2015
Moreau Kusunoki's 'art in the city' scheme wins Guggenheim Helsinki design competition
The firm’s design concept makes use of the museum’s site, turning it into a bustling, well-connected waterfront hub.
Cultural Facilities | Jun 10, 2015
Artists turn oil tankers into architecture
Four Dutch artists propose transforming tankers into monuments with mixed-use space.
