Showcase of Valuable Modern Heritage in Thailand – 2025.09.15

Join us on September 15th at 18:30, hosted at the Rui Cunha Foundation, located at 749 Avenida da Praia Grande, GF, Macau.

Abstract:
The Association of Siamese Architects under The Royal Patronage (ASA) organized annually The Architectural Conservation Award since 1982.

This award helps the building owners and the Thai public to appreciate the value of what they have as architectural heritage. In Thailand, very few modern buildings are registered as historical monuments, which is the most secure way to protect valuable buildings from destruction. The award has also been successfully leveraged to stop the demolition of several modern buildings.

This presentation will showcase a selection of awarded modern buildings which represent the good and best practice of conservation cases in Thailand. Some of them also received the international award, such as the UNESCO Heritage Award Asia Pacific.

Brief biography:

Pongkwan Lassus is a Thai architect and independent architectural heritage conservation researcher and activist based in Bangkok. She studied at the Faculty of Architecture, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, then in Paris where she graduated with a Diploma from the French Government (D.P.L.G). In 1989, she founded the architecture studio Neovista in Paris, together with her husband, French architect Antoine Lassus.

One of their notable projects at that time was the “Sala Kaew”, a Thai pavilion that mixed traditional Thai form with contemporary architectural materials and technic built on the Rond-Point des Champs Élysées designed for the Thai Airways International European headquarter in 1990. They also renovated the Royal Thai Ambassador’s residence in 1991.

They moved to Bangkok in 1994 and founded Neovista International, a small architecture and interior design firm. Pongkwan works since 2002 for the Architectural Conservation Committee of the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage (ASA). She was the editor of two important books published by ASA: “Architectural heritage in Thailand Vol. 1 and 2”, which document almost 360 buildings around Thailand. She is currently preparing the third volume.

Working as a part of the Conservation Network, she is also a committee member of various conservation organizations such as: ICOMOS Thailand Association, Society for the Conservation of Natural Treasure and Environment (SCONTE). In 2014, she was one of the founding members of Docomomo Thailand. She participated in the mASEANa Project (modern ASEAN architecture), organized by Docomomo Japan, and hosted the 6th mASEANa Conference and Workshop in Bangkok in 2018. She also contribute the content of modern architecture in Bangkok for the mASEASa book. In 2020, Docomomo International accepted
Docomomo Thai as a working chapter, where she continues to lead as a Chairperson.

Don’t miss it!