The Australian embassy in Thailand sits on Sathon Road behind a tall white fence, a mustard-gold building elevated on stilts, lined with tiles made by a ceramicist in Chiang Mai. A lake twists around and under the embassy and a flat shrub, perfectly fashioned in the shape of Australia, lies out the front of the building. For decades, it has been one of the most recognisable works of architecture on the busy Bangkok road.
Walking next to the klong towards the entrance, you might be welcomed by an assortment of extremely large carp and the occasional turtle peering up beneath the surface of the water.
Later this year, the Australian embassy will relocate to a new location opposite Lumpini Park on Witthayu Road. The new building, designed by Australian architectural firm BVN under the lead of architect James Grose, will present a change that marks a 65-year-old relationship between the two countries.
"What the building represents in relation to the bilateral relationship between Australia and Thailand is that it is a place that speaks of wanting to present itself not as an arrogant individual country in another country, but as a place that wants to talk about its relationship with the country that it is in," Grose said.
Certainly to be an architectural talking point, the new Australian embassy is a deep red brown structure with a curved and rugged exterior. It stands like an imposing rock, mimicking a landform rising from the ground.
Drawing inspiration from canyons, erosion and the beauty and arbitrary shape of land, the new embassy brings a hint of the desert into Bangkok -- and the desert is a defining and pervasive feature of the natural landscape in Australia.
"It's more potent to take the thing that is one of Australia's most distinguishing characters, which is that it is one of the few countries in the world which is so big yet uninhabitable.
"In this particular case, we're talking about expressing the land because Australia has such a strong landscape. We have the horizons, the sky, the land, we are surrounded by sea -- so we have these ideas of nature just because we are the country we are."
Grose describes the building as an abstraction of elements evident in the Australian landscape, a tactile expression of a natural environment that also infuses Thai characteristics and culture into its design.
"We had to think about how we could carve into the land or build forms up out of the land which had to do with ideas of expressing a culture within a boundary. So clearly this is not a building about Bangkok, it's a building about Australia, but it exists in Bangkok, so how do we make it also about Thailand?"
Like the old embassy, which was designed by Ken Woolley in consultation with local Thai company ML Devakul Architects, water is an integral element of the new building.
"One of the cues for making the new embassy was to ensure that we had this connection to the existing embassy. The water was an important thing for us. It is also a really important Thai aspect of making place."
The exterior, and above, the atrium of the new embassy. The Australian Embassy
An atrium slices through the middle of the building and the glass roof filters light onto moving water below, throwing ripples and reflections up the surrounding glass walls.
The walkways and gardens of the embassy draw inspiration from Thai gardens and feature plant species native to Thailand. The building also seeks to highlight the Thai conception of the interaction between inside and outside space; an idea that also is shared in the way of living in Australia.
"It's all very subtle signals that point towards the idea that the blending of these cultures has resulted in this building," Grose said.
The Australian embassy turtles will have to undergo a bit of a lifestyle adjustment. The turtles currently come up outside the ambassador's house during the week to get fed. They venture to the guard house for food on the weekends: "Going where the action is," Grose said. However, the turtles will be downsizing at the new embassy and will settle into a smaller pond.
"At the end of the turtle pond, we've designed a little sloping bank, so maybe they'll be able to roll over on their backs and lie in the sun."
The bricks of the new embassy are derived from the idea of itt mon daeng, a traditional type of Thai brick that is built from the earth and used extensively in temples. Although the embassy bricks were made in Australia, they were designed as a tribute to the historical Thai brick and its colours.
"The colour and particularity of the local stone has informed the way that we have made the walls."
The choice of materials, Grose said, has a major impact on transforming the feel of buildings and the physiology of those who move through it.
"In the new embassy there is a lot of timber used internally, and it's because we're trying to say that the character of Australia is open, warm and embracing -- giving the building a human-centric character rather than a bureaucratic character, despite the fact that it is a building with a huge wall around it.
"So while the embassy is impenetrable, it also suggests possibilities -- it's got brick, it's got timber, it suggests a warmth as opposed to the coolness of no entry.
"[The Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade] is a very sophisticated client. It's a client that knows in the world of diplomacy, that the building speaks a lot of the country. It has been a very different experience from working for a developer who in the end, the main driver is how much money you can make out of the building after it's finished. So it's been a real pleasure -- an honour -- to design a building that represents your country in another country."
On a global level, Grose indicated that the landscape of architecture is becoming increasingly homogenous and international as cities begin to lose character, and embody a feeling of rootlessness.
"The problem that we have in architecture right now, is that lots of international architects are being commissioned to do buildings all around the world, and they all look the same because they have nothing to do with the culture they come from."
Buildings are often a mark of the times. Ideas are reflected in architecture and infused into the shape and design of a structure in subconscious ways. The new Australian embassy hopes to present an intersection between two cultures, and exemplify a respect between two countries.
"I think people will recognise that they have come to a different place. They might start to think that they can feel things about being in Thailand and can also feel things about being in Australia.
"So hopefully it's that third experience -- where you go, this isn't like an Australian place and not really a Thai place, but you can feel comfortable, somewhere in the middle."
Architect James Grose. Photos courtesy of The Australian Embassy
Pix of details The Australian Embassy
