Few architects have crossed as many borders as Kulthida Songkittipakdee. She was the first Asian architect chosen by the Renzo Piano Foundation to work at Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris, and the first Thai architect featured in Wallpaper*’s Architects’ Directory.

Today she is co-founder and principal architect of HAS design and research, the Bangkok- and Shanghai-based studio she runs with her partner, Jenchieh Hung, where “design + research” looks for a new nature inside the concrete city.

The studio has won an international architecture award for its Aluminum Grotto and Public Ground. She also teaches at Tongji and Chulalongkorn universities, serves as Vice President of the Association of Siamese Architects, and has written four monographs. It is a pleasure to welcome her to Global Design News.

GDN: After Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai, what did you bring back to Bangkok, and why was it the right place to root HAS design and research?

Kulthida Songkittipakdee: After working in places such as Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai, what I brought back to Bangkok was not a particular style, but a different way of seeing the world, and how architecture is changing.

I still remember when I became the first Asian architect to receive a scholarship from the Renzo Piano Foundation to work with Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris.

At that time, it was big news in Thailand because it was a new moment for a Thai architect. The experience also gave me opportunities to give public lectures in Thailand, where I could share what I had learned internationally with Thai architects and students.

But the most important thing I learned was that the more you travel and experience different places, the more you understand the value of your own place. Architecture is not only about making something new. It is also about understanding culture, climate, geography, people, and everyday life.

I still remember Renzo Piano saying, “Root yourself in your context, and find your identity.” At the same time, I was working on a competition with Jenchieh Hung, who was then Design Manager and Project-in-Charge at Kengo Kuma and Associates.

We had both experienced working in different cities, and our vision was quite close. More than ten years ago, we already had the idea that one day we wanted to bring our international experience back to Bangkok.

I wanted to experience more of the world first. It helped me come back and look at Bangkok with different eyes, especially the simple things of everyday life. That became very important to how we started HAS (Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee) and why Bangkok was the right place for us to root our practice.

GDN: What does “design + research in parallel” look like on an ordinary day in the studio, and how do you and Jenchieh Hung share the work between you at HAS design and research?

Kulthida Songkittipakdee: For me, “design + research in parallel” means that everything does not happen step by step. It is more like a cycle, a route, where one thing leads us back to another. Even when a project is almost completed, if we see an opportunity to make it more meaningful, we will try to do it.

On an ordinary day at HAS design and research, we may be discussing a design, looking at a material, studying a site, talking about how people use a space, and at the same time asking why we should design it in that way. Everything starts with passion. Sometimes, if I feel something is not good enough, Jenchieh Hung will rethink it. Sometimes, when Jenchieh Hung feels that a project is not unique enough, I will go back and study its potential again.

Professor Jenchieh Hung and I have worked together for more than ten years, not only at HAS design and research, but also through teaching at universities as Professor/Visiting Professor. Our way of working has naturally become closely connected. We do not have a strict division.

We discuss, challenge, and develop ideas together. Jenchieh Hung tends to focus more on architecture in the urban context, while I may think more about spatial language and material patterns. For us, the most interesting part is this continuous exchange between thinking and making. Research gives us questions, and design gives us a way to test the answers.

GDN: Chameleon Architecture suggests buildings that sometimes stand out and sometimes blend in. How do you decide which a project needs, and as a juror, which kind of building impresses you more?

Kulthida Songkittipakdee: I would say architecture is also like music. It can bring the emotion to a high zone or a low zone within a space. For me, I try to create freedom in architecture. In most of our spaces, there is a unique and detailed design of spatial experience, especially in the approach sequence.

However, most people look at our building form first because it is more attractive. In this case, our design is more like a chameleon. It is suitable for its environment. Sometimes it disappears into the surroundings, and sometimes it stands out. For me, this is also a way to create different levels of spatial emotion and experience.

As a juror for many global architectural awards, including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) – RIBA International Awards, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum and Global Design News’ Future House Awards, I think an architecture award is not the final target.

It is also a practice in how to explain and represent your architectural intention and spatial emotion to the jury in another way. For me, the most impressive architecture is not necessarily the building that stands out the most. It is the project that can communicate its intention, create emotion, and make you understand why it needs to be the way it is.

GDN: What do you most want students to question about architecture, and what has teaching changed in your own practice?

Kulthida Songkittipakdee: I always want students not only to question what architecture really needs to be, but also to find their own way to answer those questions and continue finding the next questions.

I think finding a question is not difficult, but finding a meaningful answer that truly reflects the question, while allowing it to be understood from multiple perspectives, is very important to me.

I also encourage students not to be afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes, we learn more from something that does not work than from something that works immediately.

Architecture is a process of asking questions, testing ideas, making mistakes, and discovering something that we may not have expected for the future. For me, this process is very important in architectural education.

Teaching has also changed my own practice. This year, I was appointed Honorary Professor at Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering, while Professor Jenchieh Hung was appointed Practice Track Professor at Bangkok University.

These roles reflect our dedication to education and to working with the next generation of architects. Teaching keeps me curious and reminds me that architecture should never stop questioning itself. I believe teaching and practice are not separate. They continuously influence and learn from each other.

GDN: What are you working on now, and what is the Nature Trilogy book about?

Kulthida Songkittipakdee: At the moment, I am working on an architectural exhibition alongside Professor Jenchieh Hung, who is serving as Exhibition Chairman of The Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage. The exhibition will bring together renowned architects, including Kengo Kuma and eight other internationally recognized architects.

At the same time, I am continuing to work on several architectural projects in Thailand and internationally. In Bangkok, we are developing projects including the two Michelin-starred Baan Tepa Lab and Café and the Baan Tepa Re-Waste Learning Hub.

We are also designing the Bangkok Contemporary Art Centre, a new vertical museum that the government has designated as a cultural landmark for Thailand, as well as Resonance Music School Bangkok, one of the first independent music institutions in Bangkok, with a building fully dedicated to music. We are also working on projects in China, Italy, and Canada.

Alongside the practice of our firm, Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee / HAS design and research, I am developing Nature Trilogy, which is part of our continuing research into the phenomena of nature in Thailand. The book explores three chapters: Innate Nature, Evolved Nature, and Hybrid Nature. For me, nature is not simply landscape around architecture.

It can be a starting point, process, material, system, or something architecture learns from and evolves with. The book brings together our thinking, research, and projects to question what nature can mean in contemporary architecture.

GDN: If you could leave one idea with Thai architecture in ten years, what would it be?

Kulthida Songkittipakdee: This year, I have received many invitations to give lectures where organizations expect me to share our thinking under the theme of “the future.” From this perspective, I have realized that many global organizations and international architects are beginning to look at Thailand in a different way.

 They are not only looking at Thailand through its traditional identity, but are starting to believe that Thailand can become one of the important countries shaping the future of architecture in Asia. This has been a meaningful and surprising realization for me.

From this perspective, I believe our architectural design should continue to explore ideas that truly relate to the future. Thailand does not have the same long architectural evolution as Japan, with its many established philosophies, generations, and architectural family trees. But I believe this can also become our opportunity.

Our approach can create new possibilities and establish a new generation of Thai architecture, a new architectural lineage that comes from our own ideas, research, culture, and way of thinking. For me, and for my partner Professor Jenchieh Hung, this is very meaningful.

We hope our work can contribute to creating this new possibility for Thai architecture and inspire the next generation to continue developing it.