Top: Video produced by Chayanit Itthipongmaetee and Todd Ruiz
BANGKOK — The capital has a new citadel for design think with the riverfront reopening of the Thailand Creative and Design Center, or TCDC, this past weekend.
The expanded TCDC fills about 10,000sqm on five floors in different sections of the Grand Postal Building on Charoen Krung Road, a structure that remains a symbol for Thai modernity eight decades after it was built.
TCDC celebrated its long-delayed opening this past weekend with concerts, a market fair and tours of the space, which cost about 340 million baht to renovate.
Inside, guests, members and students can find resources, exhibitions, a library, fabrication lab and creative services center for business.
Of particular interest is the materials library, where one can find stuff from textiles to industrial goods cataloged, described and even mapped to where they can be found in Bangkok. FabLab operates the Makers Room, where people can make affordable use of 3D printers, textile pattern makers and other high-end fabrication devices.
Some areas are members-only. Membership is 1,200 baht for a year, and a day’s use is 100 baht.
TCDC is operated under the Office of Knowledge Management and Development, and its funding, as part of the Thaksin Shinawatra-era “Creative Economy” policy, has been targeted for defunding by the military regime.
Leaving its perch atop the Emporium shopping mall means the center’s new location may be less convenient to the Sukhumvit set. However, it hopes to get ahead of the city’s shifting center of gravity to be a cultural force amid the onslaught of commercial redevelopment underway along the Chao Phraya River.
It sits across from the Icon Siam megamall project and just south of Chinatown, where the march of gentrification will accelerate once an MRT subway extension opens.
TCDC is open every day except Monday from 10:30am to 9pm.
Our 360 video is also available on our YouTube channel for viewing on a VR headset.
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