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

In 2005, the team from the Queen Savang Vadhana Foundation began researching for the
upcoming renovation and came across some important documents that would later help recreate the
layouts of the furniture and interior decoration of different rooms inside the Principal Residence. The
documents include invoices from Maple & Co., a bill of lading to receive the imported goods from the
port, old photographs from the National Archives, etc., all of which helped a great deal in making the
museum’s and architecture team recreate the spaces to be the closest to reality possible.
Gathering Information
The information for the making of the museum was obtained through several following methods:
Interviews
The original staff and residents of Sra Pathum Palace were interviewed about their experiences and
memories living and working there. The Academic Subcommittee of the Queen Savang Vadhana
Foundation also provided additional information.
Site Survey
The research team surveyed the building and the existing pieces of furniture inside the Principal
Residence and Sra Pathum Palace for the collected data to be used alongside other portions of the
information.
Hard Copy Documents
These hard copy documents are substantial and contribute a great deal to the work process. Most of
the documents provide elaborate, specific and credible details, which allowed the team to further their
research and walk toward the right direction. The documents were mostly taken from the National
Archive and the Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary, while some were old photographs.
Some of the most significant pieces of documents include:
Invoices
The documents reveal lists of items purchased for the decoration of the Principal Residence such as
furniture, curtains along with fittings and accessories and lamps from Maple & Co., Paris, France.
In addition, the items discovered inside the Principal Residence such as furniture frames,
curtains, lamps, etc. became an important piece of information for the design and research team to
speculate and recreate the furniture layout of each room, as well as the restoration of the damaged
items. With this information at hand, they reproduced the items that could no longer be found in the
form of working drawings before proceeding to find the capable manufacturers. This included
personal visits at Maple & Co. and a number of institutions in France where the original pieces were
reproduced.
“Putting Together the Pieces”
The restoration process was carried out with different items found inside Sra Pathum Palace
such as the furniture frames, which were polished, cleaned and repainted by experienced artisans. An
additional layer of paint job was done to create the timeworn finishes of used items before the pieces
were installed back to their original positions.
For the items such as fabrics, curtains and tapestries, which were already in their unusable conditions,
the research team studied and compared with the remaining articles from the fabrics found folded and
kept underneath a piece of furniture. Some were compared to images on old photographs and items
listed on the invoices. The team then searched for the manufacturers, both in Thailand and overseas,
to reproduce the pieces and reinstall them to where they were originally placed.
The ‘patchwork’ approach of the renovation of the interior architecture includes additional
facilities installed, but only the ones necessary for the museum function, from air-conditioning system,
new restrooms, small elevators, fire alarm and security system. Meanwhile, the nearby areas were
managed with new vehicular and pedestrian circulations, as well as entrances and exits. Several old
buildings in the perimeter were renovated for the safety of the palace’s residential zone while still
being able to accommodate the public functionalities of the museum. Visitor number is monitored and
controlled to prevent the Principal Residence’s architectural structure from being overcrowded and
damaged.
Bill of Lading
The documents with lists of purchased and delivered items.Lists of Sra Pathum Palace’s registered
items and articlesInclude furniture and other items made by Sra Pathum Palace.
Photographs
The old photographs of different events happening inside Sra Pathum Palace in the past captured how
the Principal Residence used to look like, as well as pieces of furniture and items that were used back
in the days.
Maple & Co.’s Product Catalogue
The release date of the catalog is relatively close to the date found on the invoices. Inside the catalog
are images of different pieces of furniture, which allow the research team to compare the list of items
in the invoices to the products in the catalog such furniture and other decorative items. Since the
invoices provided only the product codes and descriptions but without any images, the research team
compared the details to the Sra Pathum Palace’s registered articles and furniture to locate the exact
pieces of furniture placed in each room for the recreation of the furniture layout.
38 I CO – WITH CREATORS
CO – WITH CREATORS I 39