Bangkok Utopia: Modern Architecture and Buddhist Felicities, 1910–1973

Abstract

An ambitious and accomplished work, Bangkok Utopia discusses the politics of representations in architecture and urban space in twentieth-century Siam and Thailand. Although the same subject was covered by previous publications—including Chatri Prakitnondhakarn's Kanmuang lae sangkhom nai silpa satthapatayakam (2005) and my Aesthetics of Power (2013)—Lawrence Chua, a historian of architecture at Syracuse University, has supplied a fresh perspective together with a rich account of how different ruling elites reconciled Buddhism with modernity in their attempts to portray the country and its people as members of a civilized international community via the symbolic significations of selected built forms in the capital city.Operating on the methodological premise of “urban humanities” to investigate “lived experience of urban space” (8), Bangkok Utopia examines how non-Western states like Siam and Thailand engaged modernity by localizing utopian modernism. Encompassing three parts, on the themes of tools, materials, and systems, the composition of the book mirrors the three phases of urban development in Bangkok during the ages of (1) royal absolutism in the early twentieth century (1910–32), (2) democratic revolution and totalitarianism (1933–57), and (3) American tutelage (1958–73). Incorporating various building types ranging from royal palaces and monastic complexes to cinema and crematoria, critical and analytical discussions are connected by the concept of felicities, a term that refers to a representational discourse that signifies diverse ideological imaginaries, including religious ideals and utopian visions.Prior to those chapters, Chua provides detailed explanations on the historical and cosmological frameworks of inquiry, notably how spiritual beliefs had contributed to the creation and growth of Bangkok. In chapter 2 he methodically elaborates that the concept of felicities in Siam and Thailand had been narrated “not only through didactic murals and friezes but also with building forms that could be engaged through sensorial contact as complex representations and metaphors of the cosmos and the felicitous realms within it” (193).The first part, “Tools,” comprises three chapters. Here, Chua explores the conflicts between the absolutist reign of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI, r. 1910–25) and Chinese immigrants that shaped the perceptions of public space in early twentieth-century Siam. His analysis in chapter 3 reveals how (a) architectural and planning manuals for the designs of Buddhist monastic complexes materialized the concept of sacred space and (b) a new utopia for Chinese diasporas could be realized by the rites, rituals, and spatial practices of secret societies, of which activities were documented in police records.In the following chapter, Chua examines King Vajiravudh's miniature city of Dusit Thani in terms of a queer space that exemplified the sovereign's vision of the Thai nation and society. Then in chapter 5 he presents a comparative study between two crematoria, concentrating on (a) the pyre and regal funeral for King Rama VI in 1926 versus (b) the cremation chamber and state service for the commoners who perished while battling against the counterrevolutionary royalists during the Boworadet rebellion in 1933. By delineating the changing sociopolitical landscape of the country in conjunction with contesting meanings of public space in the capital city during the transition from the absolutist to the constitutional regimes, Chua's insightful readings on contrasting expressions of imagined space embodied by the crematoria become the most convincing portion of the book.The second section, “Materials,” contains two chapters centering on how the introductions of modern building technology (namely, air-conditioning systems) and materials (especially reinforced concrete) cultivated a civilized identity for the state and ordinary citizens. Chaleom Krung cinema, opened in 1933, serves as the main case study for chapter 6, whereas selected concrete structures—consisting of public monuments and civic buildings commissioned by the People's Party that overthrew the absolutist rule in 1932—are the objects of inquiry for chapter 7. Taken as a whole, these two chapters critically illustrate the formation of both new public spheres and an imagined community that accompanied many physical changes in the capital city during the final years of royal absolutism and early days of constitutional government.Lastly, a single chapter constitutes the third part of the volume, “Systems,” featuring the rapid expansion of Bangkok from the 1950s to the 1970s under a series of military dictators, who were supported by the United States to combat the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. During the so-called American era, city planning was dictated by networks of roads, which were key instruments in fostering the construction of commercial buildings to accommodate the burgeoning tourist industry and the economic development of the country. Notwithstanding the Cold War and armed conflicts, this period of prosperity witnessed a transformation of the architectural profession in Thailand to a more capitalistic-oriented, as well as less sociopolitically concerned, vocation.As evident from his discussions of the politics of representations in architecture and urban space, Chua brilliantly discloses the underlying struggles of the Thais to be modern while preserving traditional values. Apart from offering a fresh addition to the corpus of academic literature on this metropolis, Bangkok Utopia will undoubtedly attract diverse groups of readers from architectural and urban history to sociology and political science, as well as from social and cultural history to visual culture studies. Appropriately for its subject matter, the book is generously illustrated, clearly structured, and well written. Be that as it may, the lack of an alphabetical index coupled with some repetitious notes and citations is regrettable.In any case, the said oversights and shortcomings do not prevent Bangkok Utopia from establishing Chua's preeminence among an emerging generation of art and architectural historians. Yet, unlike Marc Askew's Bangkok: Place, Practice and Representation (2002) or Philip Cornwel-Smith's Very Bangkok: In the City of Senses (2020), Chua does not produce a comprehensive work on the city. Informed by the author's knowledge of both architectural theory and practice, as well as of cultural theory and historiography, not only does Bangkok Utopia help advance twentieth-century Thai architecture from the peripheries of the modernist canon to international recognition, but it also demonstrates the ongoing paradigmatic shift away from the Eurocentric mode of historiography in the disciplines of architectural history and Asian studies. As such, the author and publisher alike deserve appreciation for bringing this book to the public.