สูจิบัตร งานสถาปนิก'65 : พึ่งพา อาศัย : Co-with Creators

From Conservation to a Living Museum
Having recalled King Bhumibol the Great’s wish and intention, HRH Princess Maha Chakri
Sirindhorn began carrying out the museum project with the renovation of the Principal Residence into
Queen Savang Vadhana Museum. Accordingly, she founded the Queen Savang Vadhana Foundation on
October 27th, 2005 as an organization that would manage the establishment into a perfectly functioning
living museum, and a credible and comprehensive source of knowledge about the Queen Grandmother’s
life and work.
‘Patchwork’ is the essence of the conservational approach of the project, which aims to
revive the interior architecture of the Principal Residence to be in the similar condition to when Queen
Savang Vadhana was still alive. The ‘living museum’ concept hopes to revitalize the function but retain
the oldness to achieve the genuine atmosphere of the time when the Queen Grandmother was living
in the house.
Phase 2 : In 2000, the building underwent a major renovation to improve structural strength
and restore some of the architectural details. It included the fixing of leakages, flooding of the
underground floor, the damage of the wooden floor caused by rainwater leakage, all the way to termite
and deterioration and cracks of the outdoor porches.
The refurbishments carried out in this specific time period were mostly conservational, and done to
preserve the building’s original conditions and repair different functional issues, rather than actually
revamping the Principal Residence back to its original condition.
Sra Pathum Palace’s long-standing existence through the changing courses of time means
that the Principal Residence has gone through a number of refurbishments as recorded in the exhibition
program created for the opening of the museum, at which HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn
presided.
Phase 1: The pre-1993 refurbishments were carried out to maintain the building’s residential
functionalities while some were done to accommodate new functional requirements such as an installation
of additional electrical cords to support the new power distribution system. Most of the works
that occurred in this particular period were not related to the building’s architecture.
36 I CO – WITH CREATORS
CO – WITH CREATORS I 37