Sumet Jumsai

Portrait of Sumet   Jumsai

Sumet Jumsai na Ayudhya สุเมธ ชุมสาย ณ อยุธยา 书梅 春塞 (b. 30 March1939, Bangkok, Thailand) is a Thai architect, visual artist and author, National Artist of Thailand in 1998, the designer of some 200 contemporary buildings in Thailand including the headquarters of the Bank of Asia (The Robot Building), the Science Museum and The Nation Building [1], a conservationist who contributed to the preservation of the Sukhothai Historical Park and Pra Nakhon Sri Ayudhaya Historical Park, and a researcher on the history of Thai and Southeast Asian traditional architectural forms.

 

1) Sumet Jumsai in the 1990s [author’s collection]. 2) The Bank of Asia headquarters, a 20-storey high-rise on Sathorn Road inaugurated in 1986 and known as The Robot Building, one of the architect’s iconic realizations and a Bangkok postmodernist landmark. In November 2023, Jumsai posted on social media: We must not let this Legend” gone forever!” [photo Time​out​.com].

 

1) Sumet Jumsai in the 1990s [author’s collection]. 2) The Bank of Asia headquarters, a 20-storey high-rise on Sathorn Road inaugurated in 1986 and known as The Robot Building, one of the architect’s iconic realizations and a Bangkok postmodernist landmark. In November 2023, Jumsai posted on social media: We must not let this Legend” gone forever!” [photo Time​out​.com].

1) Sumet Jumsai in the 1990s [author’s collection]. 2) The Bank of Asia headquarters, a 20-storey high-rise on Sathorn Road inaugurated in 1986 and known as The Robot Building, one of the architect’s iconic realizations and a Bangkok postmodernist landmark. In November 2023, Jumsai posted on social media: We must not let this Legend” gone forever!” [photo Time​out​.com].

With PhD in Architecture from Cambridge University, England, his architectural work gained an international recognition since the 1980s as he became a regular member of St. John’s College, Cambridge, a member of the French Académie d’Architecture (also made Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture), the American National Architectural Institute and the Robinson College.

Sumet Jumsai defined his own designs as Contemporary Modern and Abstract Traditional’, a dynamic blending of local cultural tradition’ and modern international innovation’. Reading Southeast Asian and Thai architectures as the cultural encounter of ancient land- and water-based building techniques and symbolics, he has explored a way to create while be totally at ease with both history and the future”, preferably with a good dose of sanuk’ สนุก, literally fun’, a Thai concept expressing the feeling of enjoyment, excitement or pleasure in all activities, including work.

In his major study in architectural history, Naga-Cultural Origins in Siam and the West Pacific (1988), Jumsai posited that Southeast Asia was largely open to the ocean in prehistoric times, absorbing influences from seafaring cultures from the Pacific and developing a water civilization” that impacted inland communities. In contrast with many Thai historians, he explored the influence of the Khmer concept of water towns” on northern neighbors, with the ubiquitous symbol of the Naga, water-serpent and feminine force. In a 1986 paper, he claimed

Southeast Asia, with its Austronesian mainstream having long ago digested both Chinese and Indian culture, [is now] tackling Western culture with gusto. Japan and Southeast Asia [are heading] together in the 21st century as a loosely grouped Austronesian entity. With architecture in the West reaching a cultural cul-de-sac, as evidenced by its Punk style and its philosophy, our architecture must now bypass the Western intellectual impasse to enter the 21st century. [“The West Pacific Region Versus Punk Architecture,” in Mimar 19: Architecture in Development, 1986].

Awarded the prestigious Crystal Award at Davos World Economic Forum in 1999, Sumet Jumsai received along other international distinctions nine Gold Medal Awards from the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage between 1982 and 1991. He remained active in private practice, heading the architecture companies SJA Co., Ltd. and SJA 3D Co., Ltd. since his retirement in 2004. As a painter, he has kept exhibiting his works in Thailand and abroad. His daughter Maymay Jumsai na Ayudhya is a renowned Thai contemporary artist. 

The Sumet Jumsai Fonds at M+, the Hong Kong global museum of contemporary visual culture [位於香港的亞洲全球性當代視覺文化博物館] in Kowloon, comprises of 7 major architectural projects designed by Sumet Jumsai, alongside the personal collection about his companies and career. They total 4690 items including 800 drawings, 3200 photographic materials, 300 documents, 80 publication materials, 40 materials and 200 raw digital working files), from the 1940s to 2017.

[1] At the time of this entry’s completion [8 Oct. 2025], the website for The Nation, a leading newspaper in Thailand, remained blocked to users trying to access it from Cambodia. We find this kind of narrow-minded, discriminatory behavior, unfortunately displayed by other Thai online resources, quite deplorable.

 

1) Bank of Asia (Robot) Building in 1986 after completion [photo by Sumet Jumsai]. 2) Two paintings by Sumet Jumsai, Robot (top) and Ronchamp 4 (bottom), 1987.

 

1) Bank of Asia (Robot) Building in 1986 after completion [photo by Sumet Jumsai]. 2) Two paintings by Sumet Jumsai, Robot (top) and Ronchamp 4 (bottom), 1987.

1) Bank of Asia (Robot) Building in 1986 after completion [photo by Sumet Jumsai]. 2) Two paintings by Sumet Jumsai, Robot (top) and Ronchamp 4 (bottom), 1987.

 

Sumet Jumsai standing near one of his artworks, 2013 [photo Art​Bangkok​.com]

Sumet Jumsai standing near one of his artworks, 2013 [photo Art​Bangkok​.com]

Exhibitions

Architecture

  • Fifty Leading Architects of the World, Vienna, Austria 1986.
  • Projects by Sumet Jumsai Associates, Osaka International House, Osaka, Japan 1991.
  • Place des Nations Competition Exhibition, Geneva 1995.
  • Venice Biennale 1996 / International Architects Section.
  • Group artists / architects travelling exhibition entitled Cities on the Move ; 19978 : Vienna ; Bordeaux ; Long Island City, N.Y. ; 19989 : Humlebaek, Denmark ; Hayward Gallery, London.
  • Exhibition at World Economic Forum, Davos 1999.
  • European Union’s Art and Architecture 1900 – 2000 Exhibition, Vienna, 2000.
  • 30 Years After — revisiting architects in Udo Kultermann’s book : Architecture in the Seventies, Kévés Studio Gallery, Budapest 2000; Museo Regional de Guadalajara, Mexico 2001.
  • Group exhibition Arti & Architettura 19002004, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy 2004 – 5.

Paintings

  • Sumet Jumsai at Galerie Atelier Visconti, Paris 1999 – 2000.
  • Group exhibition at Toit de la Grande Arche, Paris-la Défense 2002.
  • La Lanta Gallery, Bangkok 2014.
  • VERSTECKT/​hidden exhibition at NG39 Art Space, Raiding, Austria 2015.

Publications

  • Water: Origins of Thai Culture,” in Thai Charac-teristics, ed. M.R. Kukrit Pramoj, Bangkok: Thai Wattana Panich, 1982: 164 – 187.
  • Architecture and Identity Case Study 4 — Thailand: House on Stilts, Pointer to South East Asian Cultural Origin”, in Architecture and Identity, proceedings from regional seminar organized by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1983.
  • The West Pacific Region Versus Punk Architecture,” in Mimar 19: Architecture in Development, Hasan-Uddin Khan (ed.), Singapore: Concept Media Ltd., 1986.
  • Thammasat University New Campus, Rangsit”, in Mimar 20: Architecture in Development, Hasan-Uddin Khan (ed.), Singapore: Concept Media Ltd., 1986.
  • Bank of Asia”, in Mimar 23: Architecture in Development, Hasan-Uddin Khan (ed.), Singapore: Concept Media Ltd., 1987.
  • The Nation Building,” in Mimar 30: Architecture in Development, Hasan-Uddin Khan (ed.), Singapore: Concept Media Ltd., 1988.
  • NAGA-Cultural origins in Siam and the West Pacific, Oxford/​NewYork, Oxford University Press, 1988 & 1989, 183 p. ISBN 019588495; repr. Bangkok : Chalermnit Press & DD Book, 1997, ISBN9747390094; in Japanese, Tokyo, 1992; in Korean: Pusan University, Korea, 2014.
  • [with Liangwen Zhu] The Dai or the Tai and their architecture & customs in South China, Bangkok : DD Books, 1992, 140 p. ISBN 9789748874784.
  • น้ำ : บ่อเกิดแห่งวัฒนธรรมไทย [Water: The Source of Thai Culture], กรุงเทพฯ : สมาคมสถาปนิกสยาม [Bangkok, Association of Siamese Architects], 2539 – 1996, 208 p.
  • Let’s Have a Coup Once a Year and Sundry Musings: selected articles from the National newspaper 1972 – 1998, Bangkok : Nation Multimedia Group, 1999, 193 p. ISBN9747127989.
  • [with Claude Prelorenzo] 24 NC: appartement de Le Corbusier a Paris/​24 NC : apartment of Le Corbusier in Paris / 24 NC : บ้านเลอคอร์บูซิเอ ที่ปารีส, Bangkok: Li-Zenn, 2011, 63 p. ISBN 9786167191355.

References

  • Keat Lim-Chong, The International Context for South East Asian Architecture”, in Architecture and Identity, edited by Robert Powell, Singapore: Concept Media/​Aga Khan Award for Architecture, 1983.
  • Udo Kultermann, Architecture in South-East Asia: Thailand”, in MIMAR: Architecture in Development 20, Singapore: Concept Media Ltd, 1986: 52 – 29.
  • John Fleming, Hugh Honour & Nikolaus Pevsner (eds.), The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture, London, 1991.
  • Muriel Emanuel (ed.), Contemporary Architects, London: Macmillan/​Chicago: St. James Press, 1980 ; 2nd ed. 1987; 3rd ed. 1995.
  • Sir Banister Fletcher’s A History of Architecture, Architectural Press, London 1996.
  • Brian Brace Taylor & John Hoskin, Sumet Junsai, Bangkok: Asia Books, 1996, 288 p. ISBN 9748925862 [foreword by Lord Renfrew ; Thai introduction by Tawan Duchanee].
  • Jane Turner (ed.), The dictionary of Art, Macmillan, London 1996; Grove Dictionaries, New York 1996 [in 34 vols]: Vol. 17, pp. 686 – 7.
  • World Architecture 1900 – 2000 : A Critical Mosaic, Vol. 10, in Kenneth Frampton and others, Southeast Asia and the Oceania, China Architecture & Building Press, Beijing 2000 / Springer Wien, New York 2000.
  • Modern Thai Architecture 1967 – 1987 อยากทันสมัย สถาปัตยกรรมสมัยใหม่ของไทย พ.ศ. 2510 — 2530, exhibition at Gallery 2, TCDC, Bangkok, 12 June — 14 Sept. 2008.
  • Vimolsiddhi Horayangkura, In Search of Fundamentals of Thai Architectural Identity: A Reflection of Contemporary Transformation, Athens Journal of Architecture 3 – 1, Jan. 2017 : 21 – 40.
  • Pinai Sirikiatikul, The Bangkok School for the Blind by Dr. Sumet Jumsai na Ayutthaya’, Asia Journal, 134 – 43
  • Walter Koditek, Bangkok Modern: Architecture of the 1950s-1970s, Bangkok, River Books, 2025 [with the support of Docomomo Thai, The Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage and the Goethe-Institut Thailand].