Sumet Jumsai

Biography

On Sathon Tai Road in Bangkok stands a bank building with bolts for eyes, antennae and a body shaped like a human figure. It is called the Robot Building. It was completed in 1986 to a design by Sumet Jumsai (Sumet Jumsai na Ayudhya).

He was born on 30 March 1939 in Bangkok and grew up there. His parents were Mom Luang Manija and Chaloemkhuan Jumsai na Ayudhya, the daughter of the governor of the city of Nong Khai. Sumet’s brother, Achong, bears the same family name.

He finished secondary school in Bangkok, at Suan Kularb College. He then studied in Paris, and after that at a school in England, Wellingborough. He studied architecture at the University of Cambridge, from his first degree to his doctorate, and spent more than seventeen years in Europe in all. On his return he entered government service in the Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning of the Ministry of the Interior. Later he left it and founded his own architectural firm.

His list of buildings runs to more than two hundred projects. Among the early ones are a school for the blind in Bangkok (1971) and the Science Museum beside the planetarium (1977). In 1981–1983 he worked on buildings for the Asian Institute of Technology, and in 1982 he built a condominium village at Ban Saray. The Nation Building, the headquarters of the newspaper group, followed in 1988. He is also known for the campus and master plan of Thammasat University at Rangsit, the university’s new library, a Thai consulate building, the residence of the Privy Council, and a geodesic dome for desert plants in King Rama IX Park. He also took part in the design of buildings at the Place des Nations, the United Nations site in Switzerland.

A separate strand of his career concerns heritage conservation. He put forward the idea of a historical park at Ayutthaya, began the project for a historical park at Sukhothai and a project to preserve the residence of the governor in old Songkhla. He took part in the programme to preserve Rattanakosin Island in Bangkok: the market was moved off Sanam Luang, the bell and drum tower, the chain bridge and the tramway were restored, and Phra Sumen Fort was preserved. After the plaza by the monument to Rama III was laid out, the Chalermthai cinema, which for decades had blocked the view of the Loha Prasat at Wat Ratchanatdaram, was demolished. He campaigned for other monuments across the country too.

In 1989 he was a Bye Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge, and in 1991 he taught in the Department of Architecture at Cambridge. In 1990 he received an award from the Association of Siamese Architects as an outstanding conservator of Thai heritage. In 1998 he was named a National Artist of Thailand in architecture. In 1999 he received the Crystal Award of the World Economic Forum, and in 2001 he became an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2002 he became a Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne and a member of the French Académie d’Architecture. In 2003 and 2013 he was a Fellow Commoner (a senior visiting member of the college) at St John’s College, Cambridge. In 2008 France made him a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Besides architecture, he paints and writes books.