Image of Pin Sangkaeo (right) standing with partner Benson Joseph pictured during their mini-exhibition where proceeds from the exhibition were donated to Thai Rights now. Image taken by Benjamin Wang.

Thesis projects offer an exciting glimpse into the minds of emerging designers and their unique architectural perspectives as they navigate through their careers. This is the case for Syracuse University B.Arch graduates Pin Sangkaeo and her collaborative research partner Benson Joseph. Together they explore the practice of merit-making and how political tactics and consumerism have impacted Thailand's social and political agendas through their thesis project, Temples of Consumerism. 

According to Sangkaeo, the project "investigates the role of shopping malls as physical tools of maintaining the status quo, used by those who hold political powers in order to superimpose their ideologies on the collective citizens and perpetuate the systems." 

Kicking off this season's 2022 Thesis Review series, the duo discusses their project along with Sangkaeo sharing her own experiences and findings while abroad in Bangkok. They also discuss their plans for the future as both continue their research while working on their MDes degree at Harvard GSD in the fall.

*Sangkaeo was a finalist for the Britton Memorial Awards 2022 at Syracuse University, where she won the Dean’s Citations for Excellence in Thesis Design.

Temples of Consumerism: Undertaking Thailand’s Political Tactics through Bangkok Shopping Mall investigates the role of shopping malls as physical tools of maintaining the status quo, used by those who hold political powers in order to superimpose their ideologies on the collective citizens and perpetuate the systems.

Can you provide a summary of your thesis project?

Temples of Consumerism: Undertaking Thailand’s Political Tactics through Bangkok Shopping Mall investigates the role of shopping malls as physical tools of maintaining the status quo, used by those who hold political powers in order to superimpose their ideologies on the collective citizens and perpetuate the systems. The state adopted merit-making from Thai Buddhism during the Cold War as a response to the outside insurgency of the communist threat. It was used as a rebranding tactic to offer people a sense of security, protection, and abundance while subtly asserting the monarchy at the top of the religious and political hierarchy. Merit-making has commonly been practiced among Thai Buddhists in everyday life through the physicalized religious artifacts in the urban fabric and has become part of the population’s daily lives until today. As religious lifestyles become irrelevant, the modern Thai middle-class citizens take place in a new form of merit-making through shopping at the malls, which have completely replaced the temple’s role as the primary public space. Malls became the new temples that seemed secular and nonpolitical while subtly asserting the corporations on top of the hierarchy.

The shopping malls in this site are composed of regulating tactics and strategies designed to optimize this massive volume of profit-generating machines and amplify the grandeur of the merit makers. Since the shopping mall world depends on the imaginary of being a safe and enjoyable space, it must be protected and secured against any alien element breaking this illusion. Escalators add the diagonal dimension to the experience and deny the distinction between separate compartments and floors, which are limited by the structural logic of the building and are the primary regulating mechanism that has shaped shopping mall design to be as efficient as they are today.

Merit-making has commonly been practiced among Thai Buddhists in everyday life through the physicalized religious artifacts in the urban fabric [...] the modern Thai middle-class citizens take place in a new form of merit-making through shopping at the malls, which have completely replaced the temple’s role as the primary public space.

Growing up in Bangkok, I spent most of my leisure time at shopping malls. While I do not particularly enjoy shopping, being immersed in the dream-like environment of these malls made me feel safe, secure, and happy. These malls serve as physical spectacles of the power system, and I have been seduced by them and willingly allowed myself to be a piece of this system to enjoy comfort.

Temples of Consumerism subverts the role of escalators as an architectural mechanism in shopping malls, proposing an interiorized, never-ending loop of moving walkways that travels through 11 existing malls in the renowned commercial district of Siam-Ratchaprasong, connecting every escalator of the malls into one path. The devotees in this walkway loop are being placed on the spiritual hierarchy, which is regulated by the merit score systems, measured by the time and money they spend in this loop. In each mall is the orchestrated merit-making ritual that subverts the role of escalators and other regulating mechanisms. This closed-loop is in a constant state of balancing out, always regulating to be the most efficient and profitable as possible. At the exit of each mall, the devotees must offer an amount of their merit score to the “merit-makers” who orchestrated these malls. If you don’t make enough merit scores, you will be kicked out of the system and have to join the peasants and spirits living in the chaotic street below.

By using the same architectural tools that the merit-makers have used on the collective population, the escalator loop is a metaphor for how the devotees have become an integral part of completing and sustaining this interdependent system of government. Highlighting the modern capitalist society that coexists with the traditional Buddhist landscape and how Bangkok has sustained itself through the never-ending cycle of merit-making.

What was the inspiration for your thesis topic?

Thailand is a Buddhist country, with more than 95% of the population Buddhist. This sparked the question of why shopping malls, as architectural representations of consumerist culture, are such an integral part of society? In the summer of 2020, during the pandemic, I received the SOURCE Grant from Syracuse University to travel back to Bangkok. During my time there, I researched Bangkok shopping malls and their relationships to the institutions of Kingship, Buddhism, the Nation, and private investors through the lens of their roles in defining architectural spaces in the Siam-Ratchaprasong shopping district. The research concluded that Bangkok’s luxurious shopping malls are places that incite the consumerist desires of upper-middle-class Bangkok. While these malls are considered public spaces, they sell an “experience” that does not only include shopping.

Bangkok shopping malls are the ideologies of the political power structure of Thailand. By being a gated, dream-like space that internalizes itself, it hides or censors away what is happening outside these spaces through its architecture. These malls have become theaters and amusement parks that people in power exploit from. Consumerism and Buddhism have always been the tools of power by the state. Therefore, both shopping malls and Buddhist temples are the architecture where that power is exercised.

I researched Bangkok shopping malls and their relationships to the institutions of Kingship, Buddhism, the Nation, and private investors through the lens of their roles in defining architectural spaces in the Siam-Ratchaprasong shopping district.

We also take inspiration from the protest movement where the population of Thailand is calling for governmental reform. With that in mind, the project hopes to reveal the hidden truth of the power structure in Thailand that heavily involves the relationship between Kingship and Buddhism since the Cold War when the Thai monarchy rebranded itself to survive the outside insurgency of the communist threat. In December 2021, we collaborated with Boston for Thai Democracy, an organization under Thai Rights Now, in designing a protest rally at King Bhumibol Square in Cambridge, protesting the lese majeste law (Article 112) that forbids anyone to criticize the monarchy. The event happened on December 5th, which serves as the late King’s birthday and Thai Father’s Day. The performance sequence we collectively designed involves artwork by Bangkok-based artists, including PrachathipaType and Nakrob Moonmanas, who subtly reveal the Thai political agenda through their re-design of the Thai alphabet, with music by Rap Against Dictatorship, who turned that into the rap-version of the alphabet song.

Each of the Thai protestors wore the alphabet collage around their head and walked in line while chanting the alphabet song as a way to question the existence of the square that dedicates to a military coup endorser and an oppressor of free speech on U.S. soil. Professor Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai professor from Kyoto University and in political exile, was a guest star of this event, where he was hidden in the golden box covering the King Bhumibol monument and revealed himself to the public later on with a birthday cake in his hand. The performance was a peaceful and subversive approach to initiating inquiry and open conversations.

How does your thesis fit within OR challenge the discipline of architecture?

We don’t want to challenge or have the intention of being in opposition to the discipline of architecture. It’s about making and dissecting the way something works or operates. This is the ability that we have as architects. Temples of Consumerism hopes to make complacency and opportunity visible within the discipline of architecture. Complacency refers to what we allow to happen based on the service of architecture offered by architects, while opportunity refers to the larger idea of what architects strive for. So the question is, do we become complacent with what we find, or do we take it as an opportunity, knowing that we have all these skillsets to manipulate architecture within the framework it exists in.

A way to start exploring how we manipulate and subvert the power systems is by inserting the re-crafted narratives into physical and digital spaces to render a resolution test through peer critical analysis. I have noticed that playful, subversive techniques that employ mediums involved with everyday banal subjects and objects have offered seamless permeability of the heavy topics into everyday lived experiences, beginning with conversations among the mass public.

The dystopian narrative of the escalator loop showcases how the ‘commoners’ have become integral in completing and sustaining this interdependent system of government and the modern capitalist society that coexist with the traditional Buddhist landscape.

Temples of Consumerism reveals that the malls are propagandist tactics in order to indoctrinate hierarchical ideologies with the exploitative soft power of consumer culture. The dystopian narrative of the escalator loop showcases how the ‘commoners’ have become integral in completing and sustaining this interdependent system of government and the modern capitalist society that coexist with the traditional Buddhist landscape. This constructed loop offers an approach to studying, understanding, and learning from the strategies used by the overarching systems. It takes references from the cycle of reincarnation in different realms, which is based on your karma. To escape this never-ending cycle, you must first understand what it is and how it works. To escape from a trap, you must know the trap, and in knowing how it works, it can be undone.

Sampling different techniques and mediums also allowed us to curate dense research, which was then shared on the physical and digital platforms for public participation. For example, as a further exploration to test the thesis with public engagement, we exhibited Plastic Crown, a garment that recreates the Thai King’s golden crown with plastic bottles, at the Everson Museum of Art in collaboration with Urban Video Project in Syracuse in April 2021, and in December 2021, we collaborated with Thai Rights Now in designing a protest rally at King Bhumibol Square in Boston. We are planning for an exhibition for this thesis at Harvard Square in Boston at the beginning of the fall, where there will be a physical manifestation of one of the stores inside the shopping malls. Proceeds of this exhibition will be donated to Thai Rights Now, a non-profit organization that fights for human rights.

...the question is, do we become complacent with what we find, or do we take it as an opportunity, knowing that we have all these skillsets to manipulate architecture within the framework it exists in.

Did the pandemic impact your thesis planning? What difficulties did you face? How did your thesis advisors help you during this time?

My thesis was done throughout the pandemic, starting in early 2019 through the summer of 2021. It allowed me to be able to connect with different professors across the world through Zoom. In 2020, I received the SOURCE Summer Grant from Syracuse University. Through this grant, I traveled to Bangkok to conduct site research. Using photography and videography, along with research using the National Archive of Thailand, The National Library of Thailand, and local university libraries, I connected with my research advisor, Professor Lawrence Chua, through Zoom every two weeks. During my thesis in the summer of 2021, I reached out to Professor Yutaka Sho of Syracuse Architecture, who was in Japan, and Professor Patnaree Srisuphaolarn, a professor of international business from Thammasat University in Thailand.

What do you wish you would have known before your thesis? Would you change anything?

I don’t think I would have changed anything! I started my thesis research at the beginning of 2020 when I received the SOURCE Grant to research the Siam-Ratchaprasong shopping district site with Professor Chua as an advisor. I did thesis prep with Professor Lawrence Davis in the spring of my fourth year and thesis with Professor Marcos Parga the following summer and managed to graduate early. As a result, I had some extra time to curate my thesis before being selected as one of the finalists for the Britton Memorial Awards 2022 at Syracuse, where I won the Dean’s Citations for Excellence in Thesis Design. I’m glad that I have the privilege to graduate early. It allowed for other side projects Benson and I were doing to become different lenses for us to explore this thesis. I wish I had known that the thesis doesn’t end when it’s submitted, and it’s just a start. The work lies in the next steps of expanding the research to a wider audience.

I wish I had known that the thesis doesn’t end when it’s submitted, and it’s just a start. The work lies in the next steps of expanding the research to a wider audience.

What do you think the current state of "Thesis" is within architecture? How can it be improved?

From the perspective of Syracuse Architecture alums, architecture is a way to inform thinking and to work more than specifying the skill set of mediums. As a result, architecture thesis has started to offer platforms for students to explore without the limitations of what the public understands architecture can offer. With this freedom of not being limited to traditional tools, the public can engage with the content being shared collectively.

When I shared this thesis research and content on Twitter with the Thai audience, people were extremely excited about how this thesis was able to engage with something tangible to them. This thesis explores Thailand. The state of "thesis" within Thai universities' architecture is limited. We had to use academic research to subtly subvert the relationships between monarchy and Buddhism in Thailand since it was illegal to criticize the government openly.

What are your next steps academically/professionally?

To further continue this thesis exploration at the Harvard Graduate School of Design Master in Design Studies program for the next two years. Benson Joseph and I are planning to open a pop-up store in Harvard Square as a physical manifestation of one of the stores inside the shopping malls. We will be selling items designed to subvert the narrative of Thailand's power systems, where this exhibition's proceeds will be donated to Thai Rights Now. This non-profit organization fights for human rights. We're also planning a symposium on propaganda through art, architecture, and media in Thailand, with Professor Lawrence Chua from Syracuse Architecture as the moderator. Furthermore, we are planning on adapting the research framework of Temples of Consumerism to use as a template to collaborate with other students of other satellite nations around the globe that had to contend with two dominant powers post WWII to study the effect of indoctrination tactics through the built environment economically, socially, and culturally.

We are calling ourselves (snobs), a practice that bridges academic work to the public and the commercial world by creating collaborations across different artistic industries and encouraging authorship and ownership within the design world. Please follow our journey on Instagram @snobs._.

Has your thesis project influenced your approach to design and your architectural perspective?

A thesis is a chance to evaluate the work you've done over the years and make use of what you have. Temples of Consumerism has helped me look back at the mediums and topics I have been interested in since high school. I started exploring kitsch moments in everyday Thai culture through soap operas, MSG, and skin whitening products. It has been an anchor for Benson and me to test ideas and techniques through different projects with different working modes. The topic was broad enough to touch on various mediums, including video-making, music, and fashion, while still very focused on terms of architecture research. It forced us to link overlaps in different projects and consider other means and audiences. This approach of multiple attempts of experimenting has allowed us to curate something dense into a more digestible, cohesive, and concise way.

We curated a shrine in our mini-exhibition that was part of the Britton Memorial Award. Visitors were encouraged to kneel on the merit-makers rug to learn more about the thesis on the pamphlets and donate to Thai Rights Now by placing cash in the dog bowl that serves as the donation box. The snippets of drawings were printed and mounted onto small golden frames, hung on a grid as if each picture was a commercialized item selling in a store. The drawings were priced high to mock the ridiculously expensive royal portraitures of the Thai King seen around Thailand. We eventually sold one of the drawings for $375, where all the proceeds went to Thai Rights Now. The mini-exhibition was an accumulation of mediums and methods throughout the years of experimenting on and around this thesis.

A thesis is a chance to evaluate the work you've done over the years and make use of what you have.

Any tips for students working through their thesis?

Look back at what you have done, and use what you have. Everything you need to support your thesis, and your job is to filter it out by trying and experimenting. Also, talk to people from different backgrounds and disciplines. This will expand your understanding of what architecture can touch and help you know how to approach your thesis to other groups of audiences.

Undergraduate thesis by Pin Sangkaeo. Video courtesy of Pin Sangkaeo.

Archinect's Spotlight on Thesis Projects: Archinect's commitment to highlighting student work doesn't stop at simply sharing projects. Our editorial team focuses on connecting with students and asking questions to learn their process, architectural perspectives, and their take on the industry as young designers. To support the class of 2022, we've launched our summer series iteration of Archinect's Thesis Review to highlight the work of thesis students during this unique time of hybrid and remote learning. Be sure to follow our 2022 thesis tag to stay up to date as we release new project highlights.