Siam Area/Former British Council

AG5 documents the building of the former British Council in Bangkok, built in 1970 by architect Sumet Jumsai. The upper floor of the building is occupied by fashion label WWA with their cultivated taste for luxurious invisibility and includes a short interview with the three founders of WWA. A reprinted essay by architect and urban planner Brian McGrath gives a broader picture of the Siam area whose development accelerated at the time of the construc- tion of the British Council and is today the city’s major shopping district. This text can also be read as a plea for the renaissance of the water-bound infrastructure of Bangkok. McGrath, now professor at Parsons School of Design, lived and taught in Bangkok for more than fifteen year