The global financial crisis and ongoing political turmoil might persuade you to switch off your creativity. So why not freshen up with some new ideas? Simply take a look at the Bangkok Design Festival 2008 in this report.
This year’s Bangkok Design Festival is full of new forms and functions serving to enlighten the creativity and imagination of those visiting the event. It’s aimed at being a platform where designing artists can share their innovation and stimulate the kingdom’s contemporary design scene.
The design festival is divided into numerous small exhibitions representing many aspects of design; such as architecture, interior design, product design, graphic design and fashion and jewellery design.
One interesting feature is an exhibition of the very best thesis of Thai undergraduate design students. Visitors can see many impressive inventions including a butterfly shaped hanger for women’s lingerie to keep the attire fresh, created by a student from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi.
"Sometimes it gets dry quite hard. There’s a lot of sponge, there’s a lot of fabric inside. So this kind of structure will help dry your lingerie. So your lingerie won’t have a bad smell when it’s not completely dry," said Alongkot Manorungruengrat, a design student at King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi.
In the Thai architecture section, an architect has designed a temple with an unconventional structure, combining Buddhist principles with modern concepts.
"I have been working in temple design for five years. With Buddhist ideas, simplicity is the best. Despite the new forms, tranquility remains in my design," said Suriya Limpansiriratana, an architect.
The Bangkok Design Festival has been warmly welcomed by designers of 13 nations whose works is on show including Austrian artist Florian Baptist Gypser, who applies the theory of simplicity and complexity in one art piece.
"The inspiration for this chair comes from relationship between inside and outside. In the beginning I was designing quite simple objects. In the end I decided to cut in order to perceive the space inside. And then I saw the relationship between the simple outside of the shape and the rather more complex space of the inside," said Florian Baptist Gypser, an Austrian designer
Apart from the display of new inventions, a venue is provided for new designers from every field to present their ideas to entrepreneurs who could help convert the concepts into actual and marketable products. Visitors can also attend a workshop on how to recreate waste into decorative items.
The Bangkok Design Festival is running until October 26 in many parts of Bangkok; at the Thailand Creative and Design Center, Bangkok Contemporary Art Museum, The Jim Thompson House, Siam Paragon, Siam Center, Siam Discovery, The Emporium and Impact Arena Muangthong Thani.
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