Works of On-gard Satrabhandhu and Le Corbusier: Evidence of Crypto-Colonialism in Thailand

A direct assimilation of European modern architecture has emerged in Thailand since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Even though Thailand has never been formally colonized, “Thai identities” or “Thai-ness” has still inevitably encountered and absorbed multiple fractured cultural and racial identities from the West. One example is the formation of high Modern architecture associated with Imperialist countries which inform the concept of siwilai, a distinctive Thai conception of civilization formulated by Siamese aristocrats who received education abroad. Thus, parts of Thai architectural products cultivated from the nineteenth century onward can be asserted as an outcome of “Crypto-Colonialism.” This proposal argues that Thai architectural identity is comprised of two major components: one is an identity directly claimed from its independence and the other is an identity indirectly claimed from an intrusive colonial power developed in Thailand. These visible cultural transmissions are found in the works of a Thai architect, Ongard Satrabhandhu, from 1960s-90s. Guaranteed by his promoted position as a Thai national architect, Satrabhandhu’s work not only allowed Western Modernism to enter into Thai architectural tradition, but also highlighted the differences in the constant exchanges and the re-definitions of originality and assimilation placed on Thai architectural identity. By examining the transculturation of Western ideology in Thai architectural context via an architectonic comparison between the works of Ong-ard Satrabhandhu and Le Corbusier who Satrabhandhu draws from, this proposal reveals a new colonial dimension in investigating colonialism through the formation of Neo-traditional Siamese architectural style in Thailand during the twentieth century.