National Artist Chakrabhand Posayakrit, centre, and his team rehearse the much-awaited puppet show ‘Taleng Phai’.

Plans for a brand-new skyscraper right next door threaten to drown tradition stored at the Chakrabhand Museum in dust and dereliction

The Chakrabhand Posayakrit Foundation and Museum on Soi Ekkamai off Sukhumvit Road will be damaged if the planned 32-storey DLV Condo project goes ahead on the site right next door.

Yesterday, a museum representative handed a petition against the construction to Bangkok Deputy Governor Bannasopit Mekvichai at City Hall and to a secretary director of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Seeking official okay

The construction company, a Singapore-Thai joint venture called Dalvey Home, is in the process of applying for planning permission. Neither the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) nor the ministry have received the application as yet.

The BMA deputy governor said the city will consider the petition.

Owned and set up by National Artist Chakrabhand Posayakrit, the museum also doubles as a home and a studio.

Set in a large garden, it is the only cultural centre in Ekkamai.

"I have been living and working here for more than four decades. In addition, dozens of my students, puppeteers and artists work here every day.

"If the condominium is built, it will damage my work with the dust, disrupt work at the foundation and pollute our community," Chakra-bhand, 64, says.

After the success of its latest Bt400-million Condo DVN on Soi Thonglor 20, the 120-room DLV Condo will be built on a 500 square-metre plot of land, which Chakrabhand's cousin sold to a broker last year and claims he had no idea a condominium would be built on the site.

Dalvey Home organised a meeting with the local community in January, at which locals voted against the construction citing environmental damange. The museum is located opposite Big C, which was built on an old garden nursery.

With access to the Skytrain, this prime area of Soi Ekkamai - once a quiet residential area - has been transformed into a "modern urbanised" centre with new condos, bars and night-clubs.

xtra

who will be affected

>> The Chakrabhand Foundation and Museum that currently stores paintings, puppets and sketches of murals worth millions of baht.

>> The Consulate of Jordan on Ekkamai and the Consulate of Monaco in Soi Setthabutr, 30-metres from the proposed condo.

>> The Ekkamai and Setthabutr communities who have lived in the area for generations.