Over two days (13–14 March 2025), students from Suankularb Wittayalai’s UNESCO Club led an exploration of Bangkok’s Siam Mai era. On Day One, they collaborated in teams to decode three period maps (1887, 1932, contemporary) and compare matched historical and modern photographs—tracing canal routes, street layouts, and architectural façades. On Day Two, they surveyed eight designated sites across Rattanakosin Island, using field observation and map-based detective work to note surviving details, document urban transformations, and reflect on the evolution of daily market life and public spaces. Back in the workshop room, each team synthesised their findings into vibrant posters and delivered peer presentations. By practising critical questioning and collaborative storytelling, this learner-centred approach empowered students to “read” the city as a living archive.
Reading the City, Reading the Past: Museum Links with Suankularb Wittayalai’s UNESCO Club
13 - 14 Mar 2025
An immersive two-day programme where Suankularb Wittayalai’s UNESCO Club members decoded Bangkok’s “Siam Mai” era through expert lecture, map-and-photo analysis, and on-site investigations. Day One featured a detailed lecture on 19th–early 20th-century reforms, followed by team assignments to study two historic sites via triangulation of 1887, 1932 and contemporary maps alongside archival images. On Day Two, teams surveyed eight key locations across Rattanakosin Island, then synthesised their findings into dynamic posters. The workshop fostered critical questioning, collaborative storytelling and a tangible appreciation of how Bangkok’s places and streets encode its past.
This summary video captures key moments from TSS students’ two-day City Quest at Museum Siam and Rattanakosin Island. Through lectures, map analysis, and on-site “Photo Detective” activities, students explored Bangkok’s urban evolution, compared historic and modern landscapes, and shared their discoveries in collaborative presentations. The video reflects how experiential learning fostered curiosity, teamwork, and a deeper understanding of the city’s history.
Suankularb Wittayalai’s UNESCO Club dove headfirst into a Museum Links adventure, uncovering Bangkok’s Siam Mai era—when the kingdom reinvented itself under pressure from Western powers.
Day One: Into the Workshop
Independent historian Siripoj Laomanacharoen opened the session with a vivid overview of the Siam Mai transformations under Kings Rama IV to VII. He highlighted key reforms—such as King Rama IV’s English-language essays presenting Siam’s traditions to the West, the adoption of European-style royal architecture, the expansion of roads and housing, and the introduction of modern administrative and educational initiatives—all designed to modernise the kingdom and project its civilised stature to colonial powers.
Following the lecture, students split into four teams, each tasked with two historically significant sites. First, they immersed themselves in three chronological maps (1887, 1932, and today) alongside pairs of old and current photographs. Using these maps as their compass, teams traced shifting road layouts, winding canals, and evolving communities, while practising detailed photo‐reading to capture clues to the past. This preparatory work set the stage for field exploration to come on Day Two.
Day Two: Tracing History on Rattanakosin Island
Armed with insights from Day One’s evidence, the four teams set forth across Rattanakosin Island, the heart of the old capital where echoes of the Siam Mai period linger in every alley. They began at the rows of terrace houses born of King Rama V’s urban reforms, marvelled at European-style façades, discovered hidden cast-iron gates tucked away in a public garden, and noted how historic buildings have been repurposed for modern use.
With contemporary map as their guide and expert commentary filling in context, students compared vintage photographs to today’s streetscape. They scrutinised surviving details—ornate ironwork, original street paving—and observed bold interventions, such as contemporary extensions grafted onto heritage façades or altered ground-floor layouts reflecting new uses. This immersive expedition taught them to “read” the urban landscape as living evidence: that every building, every canal, every thoroughfare can tell the story of Bangkok’s transformation when you know how to ask the right questions.
Back in the Museum Siam workshop room, each team distilled their fieldwork into vivid posters, blending maps, side-by-side photo comparisons, and key findings into dynamic narratives. Through lively presentations, they shared a cohesive vision of Siam Mai, bringing to life how Bangkok’s past and present intertwine in its very architecture and streets.
Impact on Teaching & Learning
Teachers left inspired to weave museum-style inquiry into their own UNESCO Club activities—planning field trips guided by maps, building photo-reading exercises into lessons, and framing history as a conversation between past and present. For Suankularb’s young curators, this two-day journey proved that history is more than static dates: it’s an ongoing story etched into every street and skyline, waiting for inquisitive minds to read it anew.
