Building Siwilai : Transformation of Architecture and Architectural Pricetice in Siam during the Reign of Rama V, 1868 - 1910.

Abstract

This dissertation is an interpretation of architectural transformation in Siam from the mid-nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth century. During the reign of King Rama V (1868 to 1910). Siamese aristocrats formulated a distinctive conception of civilization–siwilai, in Thai–that became central to changes in both architecture and architectural practice. The dissertation begins with the analysis of architecture of the early Bangkok period, from the late-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, in order to understand the correlation between architecture and authority in a traditional Siamese context, the dynamics of stylistic change, and premodern architectural practice. The dissertation then examines the correspondence between attitudes about, and representations of civilization as these produced changes in both architectural style and architectural practice during the first half of King Rama V’s reign. As Siamese aristocrats took Europe and their colonies in South and Southeast Asia as a new paradigm of “civilization,” they made their ideals manifest through hybridized forms of architecture and urban design, forms that were both conceived and mutually created by Siamese and European master builders and patrons. The dissertation argues that administrative centralization during the latter period of Rama V’s rule—which led among other things to the creation of the Public Works Department (PWD)—altered the processes and personnel through which a large-scale remaking of Bangkok was undertaken , especially between 1889 and 1910. The dissertation thus documents how the Siamese PWD transformed architectural practice in Siam after the turn of the twentieth century. If older Siamese architectural traditions were altered (and in some cases terminated), then a neo-traditional Siamese style was created in its place. Through the analysis of archival and architectural data, the dissertation uses architecture as a framework to further our understanding of the ambiguous, syncretic nature of Siamese aristocrats’ conception of civilization that became integral to global transculturation phenomena in the region from the mid-nineteenth century to the turn of the twentieth century.