thingsmatter

thingsmatter is committed to practicing architecture as both a critical discipline and a fine art, as an instrument for cultural enlightenment rather than narrow economic gain. The studio's early work in Bangkok included a series of temporary interventions in commercial spaces which criticized the consumer culture which hosted them, while simultaneously celebrating the opportunity for communication to a diverse audience, and the material extravagance that only shopping malls can realistically provide. Recent work extends the working methods, tactility, and human scale of thingsmatter's event architecture to more conventional building programs, including private residences that simultaneously function as public statements on the nature of the contemporary city. thingsmatter was founded in 2001 by Savinee Buranasilapin and Tom Dannecker. Both principals received undergraduate training at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, with graduate work in architecture at Princeton University. Buranasilapin and Dannecker have lectured extensively about their work, including at the architecture graduate programs at Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton, as well as numerous Thai Universities. They have taught, lectured and/or led workshop units at Bangkok University, Chulalongkorn, Kasetsart, Rangsit, and Silpakorn Universities. Together and separately, they have written and edited for art4d magazine.