Italian Design at the Court of Thailand

Once again, Italian design is the protagonist in the Far East. Goppion, in fact, has designed the display cases of the new Her Majesty Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles of Bangkok, which is scheduled for opening next April 26.

The museum, dedicated to Queen Sirikit, is housed in the Grand Palace, the historical royal palace, which has been fully and lavishly renewed for this occasion in the Italian style by famous Thai architect Jai Siriatumrong (DSDI Inc.).

The Museum exhibits the huge collection of the Queen's dresses, which have been designed by French fashion designer Pierre Balmain since the 1970s to the present, and the large collection of fabrics manufactured by the Queen's foundation, which has always fostered the valorization of Thai traditional weaving techniques.

Goppion has manufactured highly technological display cases for the Museum: they contain (and hide) all necessary systems: interior lighting, active and passive climate control devices, safety systems.

Each display case has different shape, movement, and size. The interplay of glass surfaces on different planes, the use of curved glass panes, customized glass-cutting, and a series of special materials combine to produce exciting, unusual, and dynamic effects. For example, clothes on still dummies seem to come alive with motion, three-dimensional images are created, and the objects on view appear and vanish depending on the visitor’s position. And the angle display case that “presents” the Palace’s exquisite Buddhist temple generates captivating interactions with the outdoor scenery.

The clever use of colors (yellow and sky-blue, symbol colors of Thailand), the precious materials and finishes, and the technological design create a fascinating dialectics with the architecture of the old palace.