How this Thai eco-designer is battling convention and making rubbish beautiful
How this Thai eco-designer is battling convention and making rubbish beautiful
By turning scrap into beautiful products, Singh Intrachooto has established himself as one of Thailand’s foremost eco-designers. Property Report speaks to him about changing attitudes through innovation
They say that generosity can reap rich dividends. And for Singh Intrachooto it was a magnanimous gesture that helped steer him along a singular path towards becoming arguably Thailand’s most esteemed eco-architect and designer.
Although he always had an interest in environmentally responsible design and lectured on it to his students at Kasetsart University, his work focus upon returning to Bangkok after a long stint in the United States and Europe was traditional architecture. The eureka moment – the point that he really made a commitment to becoming an evangelist for sustainable design and champion of up-cycling from construction and industrial by-products – came when he was thinking about gift ideas for his partner, a building contractor.
“I was thinking to myself: what would make a cool present?” he explains. “So I collected scrap teak wood from her job site and made some benches for her. That was when I realised that all the waste that is created on these projects can actually be put to good use.
“Typically there’s about 32 times the amount of waste to the amount of materials actually used and that’s absolutely crazy. I was witnessing tons of waste being hauled away from my own construction sites, even when the projects were classified as eco-friendly.”
Since that fateful day, Singh has channelled his considerable energy into spreading the gospel of sustainable architecture and interior design both in his native Thailand and at lectures and seminars around the world.
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His schedule has been particularly hectic of late. When we catch up with him, he has just returned from a green symposium in Beirut, Lebanon. Before that he spoke at the Salzburg Global Seminar where he discussed the concept of turning waste into something valuable with other thought leaders on sustainability. He’s also been busy overseeing his eco-design firm OSISU’s display of furniture and home-ware made with reclaimed construction scraps at international furniture fairs.
Given his packed itinerary, it is a slight worry that he won’t manage to make the timeslot for our call. However, he is ready to wax lyrical at exactly the allotted hour.
“I attend so many meetings and seminars both here and overseas that I’ve perfected the art of being on time,” he laughs.
It is not just his punctuality that marks Singh out. Over the course of the conversation, the architect will muse on subjects ranging from sustainable architecture to the current political impasse in Thailand. On the depressing outlook for the planet, he offers a blunt remark.
“My personal view is that we are screwed,” he says softly. Despite frequent moments of frankness, Dr Singh is far from downbeat. He talks passionately about his work as design principle at OSISU, Thailand’s leading eco-design production house, and head of the Building Innovation and Technology Program at Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Architecture.
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Source: Property Report