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
| May 29, 2014
7 cost-effective ways to make U.S. infrastructure more resilient
Moving critical elements to higher ground and designing for longer lifespans are just some of the ways cities and governments can make infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters and climate change, writes Richard Cavallaro, President of Skanska USA Civil.
| May 23, 2014
Big design, small package: AIA Chicago names 2014 Small Project Awards winners
Winning projects include an events center for Mies van der Rohe's landmark Farnsworth House and a new boathouse along the Chicago river.
| May 23, 2014
Top interior design trends: Gensler, HOK, FXFOWLE, Mancini Duffy weigh in
Tech-friendly furniture, “live walls,” sit-stand desks, and circadian lighting are among the emerging trends identified by leading interior designers.
| May 22, 2014
No time for a trip to Dubai? Team BlackSheep's drone flyover gives a bird's eye view [video]
Team BlackSheep—devotees of filmmaking with drones—has posted a fun video that takes viewers high over the city for spectacular vistas of a modern architectural showcase.
| May 22, 2014
IKEA to convert original store into company museum
Due to open next year, the museum is expected to attract 200,000 people annually to rural Älmhult, Sweden, home of the first ever IKEA store.
| May 21, 2014
Gehry unveils plan for renovation, expansion of Philadelphia Museum of Art [slideshow]
Gehry's final design reorganizes and expands the building, adding more than 169,000 sf of space, much of it below the iconic structure.
| May 20, 2014
Kinetic Architecture: New book explores innovations in active façades
The book, co-authored by Arup's Russell Fortmeyer, illustrates the various ways architects, consultants, and engineers approach energy and comfort by manipulating air, water, and light through the layers of passive and active building envelope systems.
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.
| May 19, 2014
Calatrava wins court case concerning 'Calatrava bleeds you dry' website
A judge has ordered the left-wing political party Esquerra Unida to pay €30,000 to Santiago Calatrava because of "insulting and degrading" website.
| May 15, 2014
First look: 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to first-responders, survivors, 9/11 families [slideshow]
The 110,000-sf museum is filled with monumental artifacts from the tragedy and exhibits that honor the lives of every victim of the 2001 and 1993 attacks.
