With a vision rooted in storytelling and urban exploration, Chatchavan Suwansawat’s work shapes spaces that celebrate Bangkok’s unique architectural language.
As part of our Thai Design in Focus series, we spoke with Chatchavan Suwansawat, Design Director of Everyday Architect Design Studio, an architectural laboratory inspired by the vernacular charm and dynamic energy of Bangkok.
Founded in 2020 and nestled in a local shophouse in Bangkok’s Old Town, the studio reflects Chatchavan Suwansawat’s deep connection to the city’s everyday culture.
Everyday Architect Design Studio’s notable projects include the Thai Urban Mess Exhibition, Khlong San Studio, and The Cliff Cafe, all of which exemplify its ability to reinterpret urban elements with creativity and purpose.
Alongside architectural practice, Suwansawat is also a writer. His essay collection, “Architect-ure” (literally Architect Found), encourages readers to rediscover overlooked details in contemporary Thai architecture—from blue PVC pipes to patterned metal grilles and steel collapsible doors—highlighting the beauty of the ordinary.
The name ‘Everyday Architect Design Studio’ came from the passion of searching for the ordinary wonders in everyday life. We don’t like extravagant celebrations but rather focus on the little things of each day.
The word ‘Everyday’ already has a philosophical meaning in itself. It’s a simple, familiar word with a deep meaning, which is why we chose to use the word ‘Everyday’ before the name of our studio.
“The name ‘Everyday Architect Design Studio’ came from the passion of searching for the ordinary wonders in everyday life.”
Everyday is a strong word that could lead our work in every design project. We always try to look for the little things, hidden in each project. Especially the things that most people choose to overlook, we try to pick them up and use them in a new way or to the fullest extent.
Traditional Thai design has almost no influence on our designs, in other ways, we often choose to be the opposite. Because the starting point of our interest in everyday life came from questioning traditional Thai design.
Traditional Thai design is often associated with the upper class in Thai society or chooses to focus on the culture of rural areas that are very far from our social realities.
It turns out that what influences our designs is the culture of the little Thai people who make a living in the cities that we encounter every day in urban life, such as motorbike taxis, and street vendor sellers.
These groups of people have unique cultures that often minimize their space to exist in urban areas interestingly, reflected through DIY equipment and modifying objects that support their daily life, whether DIY Chairs or DIY Carts in various forms.
We always feel “Wow” every time we see these things and can call this culture ‘Thai Urban Vernacular’ which many Thais overlook, for sure, this thing is a strong inspiration for our creative approaches.
We are not sure about the indicators of Thai design being unique in the world, but if we look at it through the eyes of Thais, we find that many unique Thai designs tend to be very traditional and emphasize delicacy and grandiose craftsmanship at the expense of lavish labor.
Of course, it always amazes us and we know this feels Thai somehow.
“It turns out that what influences our designs is the culture of the little Thai people who make a living in the cities that we encounter every day in urban life, such as motorbike taxis, and street vendor sellers.”
Another characteristic of unique Thai design always comes from creativity outside the rules of the design world. It manages materials and sources from around creatively and impossibly, all of which are the result of many social factors and conditions, resulting in a unique skill of Underdog Design that is quite strong.
And again we can know this feels Thai somehow.
My essays in various media, including my two books about Thai Architecture, tend to invite questions about objects and architectural designs in the realities of Thai society, especially in the city areas, which most Thais choose to overlook.
This ranges from culture in private spaces, such as traditional shrines in front of houses or Chinese shrines inside the home, how Thais choose the bright colors to paint the walls of Thai houses, or culture in public spaces, such as street food cultures and motorbike taxis.
Yes, most of my essays tend to be in the area of urban Thai, and the main reasons why most Thais often overlook things of urban Thai may consist of two factors:
Most Thais tend to dream too far away to the point of forgetting to look at the reality of society. My essays serve to pull people back from that dream and invite them to think and develop this reality.
It must be admitted that we are not experts in using digital tools. Our designs are still working with basic programs without any AI plug-in tools. This is our weakness and needs a lot of development in the future.
But one thing that we often get feedback on is the things that our studio making documentaries about Thai Urban Vernacular are not easily searchable on the internet.
It’s funny that why would people take pictures of this stuff and upload them to the internet? And that’s how we know that AI can’t provide data to what we’re interested in because no one has provided it with enough data to enable machine learning.
“My essays in various media, including my two books about Thai Architecture, tend to invite questions about objects and architectural designs in the realities of Thai society, especially in the city areas, which most Thais choose to overlook.”
This makes us believe that there is always room for new designs where AI still has to catch up with humans, especially in the area of Thai design.
We are delighted to share our 180 sq.m. house renovation project named ‘Din Daeng House’ which we have just completed at the end of 2024.
This project is so meaningful for our studio as we have started to use the dataset from our research that appeared in our second book, 365 DAYS OF THAI URBAN MESS ARCHITECTURE, the language of Thai Urban Vernacular architectural design that we spent many years collecting in the field, creating a set of diagrams that can be informed or merge in architectural design methods.
In this project, we were inspired by seeing Street Restaurants use the air-hanging technique by creating pipes for hanging stuff and integrating them into the handrails of the staircase throughout this house project, so that the house owner can organize stuff or clothes on any of the hanging rails maximized.
This technique uses a relatively small footprint but is very efficient compared to building a cabinet to manage things.
This case came from learning about Urban Vernacular intensively enough that we can select this study to apply in modern design. In any future design projects, we will try to use this method more.
Something symbolic of Thai architecture that someone visiting Thailand should see:
I would like to invite everyone to explore ‘Soi’, which means the alleys, wherever in Thailand because it is an interesting kind of form and symbolic of urban Thai Architecture.
Although this kind of alley may be similar in many cities around the world, it is worth exploring and opening your eyes to.
A Thai designer or artist that you would like to collaborate with or have been inspired by:
Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, a filmmaker, is a creative person who influenced and inspired me to start writing my first book (Architect-Jer, 2020). Of course, I also wanted to collaborate with him someday.
Your go-to source for creative inspiration in Bangkok:
Just go for a walk and try to find something looking nonsense around, believe me, these are too many sources for creative inspiration in Bangkok.
