Thai Architecture Programme
The Geoffrey Bawa Trust, in partnership with the Royal Thai Embassy of Colombo, launched a joint Thai Architecture Programme between October and December 2025. The Programme brought leading Thai architects to Colombo to engage with Sri Lankan practitioners and audiences through talks, workshops, and public events. It explored a broad range of themes, including architectural history, contemporary practice in tropical contexts, museum-making in South and Southeast Asia, and the social, cultural, and environmental dimensions of architecture, while strengthening exchange and dialogue between Sri Lanka and Thailand.
In partnership with
October–December 2025
Rachaporn Choochuey is a Bangkok-based architect and co-founder of the design studio all(zone), established in 2009. Her work examines contemporary architectural practice in tropical urban contexts, with a focus on adaptability, material experimentation, and everyday life in rapidly changing cities. Drawing from Bangkok’s informal urban conditions, her practice explores new forms of vernacular architecture responsive to climate, density, and social use.
Choochuey has taught for two decades at the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, and has held visiting appointments at institutions including the Yale School of Architecture and Columbia GSAPP. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and her Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University.
Kulapat Yantrasast is an architect and the Founder, Managing Principal, and Creative Director of WHY Architecture. Born in Bangkok, he received a Master of Architecture and a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Tokyo, and subsequently worked for eight years with Tadao Ando on major cultural projects in the United States and Europe, including the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Since establishing WHY Architecture in Los Angeles in 2004, Yantrasast has led the design of numerous museum and cultural institutions internationally, including the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the first LEED Gold–certified museum in North America. His work focuses on the design of cultural spaces and museums, with recent projects for institutions such as the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Academy Museum of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is a frequent public speaker and the first architect to receive the Silpathorn Award from the Government of Thailand.
Pirasri Povatong, Ph.D., is an architectural historian specializing in architecture and urbanism of Thailand during the 19th and 20th centuries. After finishing his study at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, conducting research on the development of modern architecture in Thailand, and the preservation of modern architectural heritage through archival materials, walking tours, and other public education programs.
