It’s a baby Baan Silapin

Baan Silapin, the “artists’ house” in Bangkok’s Klong Bang Luang neighbourhood where Chumpol Akkapantanon hosts gatherings of fellow creative types, has been intriguingly replicated at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

It was Chumpol who managed to give the old community off Phetkasam Road in Phasi Charoen district – still stitched together with wooden walkways – a fresh lease on life six years ago with an arty commune that became a tourist attraction.

The 70-square-metre, L-shaped Baan Silapin has a gallery upstairs, and below that a studio where anyone can sign up for lessons in drawing and making woodcuts and jewellery. And now it’s been cloned in a rented room in the Culture Centre’s retail area.

The compact version utilises old wood just like the original and the walls hold Chumpol’s paintings of the classic canal-side houses. He’s filled a shelf with ceramics he made or bought at Japanese flea markets, which are on sale at prices ranging from Bt40 to Bt100. 

In the real Klong Bang Luang between Phetkasem sois 20 and 28 – all wooden shophouses and Ayutthaya Era temples – you can get an idea of how Thonburi must have looked in the 19th century when it was Siam’s capital. The canal that gives the community its name feeds into the Chao Phraya River at Wichai Prasit Fort, where King Taksin the Great had his Wang Derm Palace and naval base.

“The community preserves that vintage charm so well that it’s a wonder to see in this modern world,” says Chumpol. “It’s a model for sustainable canal communities. We get around 100 visitors every weekday and twice that many on weekends. 

“One day I was at the Culture Centre and saw a room being used on and off by business tenants, and I felt challenged to try a business of my own. I think I can make a go thanks to my experience working with many different communities.”

Chumpol has a gift for giving art a community context. He ran Bangkok Art Avenue on Klong Lod and the Art Mall next to Silpakorn University in Sanam Chan, and gave the Phranakorn-Nornlen boutique hotel a more environmentally friendly and nostalgic ambience.

As a retailer in the mock-up Baan Silapin, he’s catching the eye of tourists and art lovers touring the Culture Centre. 

“Half my customers are foreign tourists looking for ‘Thainess’, and this place has that homey appeal that takes them back to the olden days,” Chumpol says. “Maybe after seeing this they’ll want to visit Klong Bang Luang and other communities like it.”

If the food on offer at the replica Baan Silapin is any indication, the tourists will be hoping to dine in those communities too. You can get egg noodles with barbecued pork for Bt45, shrimp wontons added for an extra Bt5. 

“A friend of mine has a noodle shop opposite Mahidol University in Salaya and makes his own noodles, and the broth is perfect!” Chumpol says. “So I invited him to set up a small shop here. People love his noodles – he sells more than 100 bowls a day!”

There’s even a salad corner, run by Punnee Kongsook, who used to operate Green Line in the Seri Market, a now-closed shop that sold healthy food. 

Chumpol asked her to come and do those stuffed salad rolls she makes so well – the stuffing choices include tuna, Thai-style pork sausage, ham, and mock crab. Price: just Bt40 per roll. 

And meanwhile Chumpol is pocketing Bt20 on every bottle of iced Ceylon tea, bael-fruit juice and chrysanthemum tea, which he makes himself.

 

THE PAST WITH PASTA

See the replica Baan Silapin on the second floor of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

The centre is near the National Stadium BTS station and open daily except Monday from 11am to 8pm.