Thai lifestyle exports are challenged today on many fronts: There is the ongoing world economic slowdown affecting the country's main export markets; the strength of the Thai currency, the bhat; and the unrelenting and aggressive competition from China, Thailand's massive neighbor to the north. In light of these factors, the Thai lifestyle industry has had no option but to concentrate on quality, service and, especially, design. Whether for this or a variety of other reasons, Thai design has undergone a transformation in recent years and is now being sought after for its exciting and innovative use of color, materials and fresh ideas. Although the majority of Thai lifestyle and gift items imported into Saudi Arabia tend to be plastic flowers, costume jewelry and other inexpensive items, Thailand is today producing a wide range of high-quality products reflecting the latest design innovation. At this month's Bangkok International Gift Fair, a number of such products were on display along with designs that were clearly intended to marry innovation with environmental consciousness. Many of these, as you might expect, depended on the use of recycled materials, but others involved a different way of looking at ordinary, everyday objects in order to create something stylish, yet with an environmentally friendly angle. Much of the modern Thai design on display at the fair did not on the surface look particularly Thai and did not seem to borrow from traditional Thai design themes. However, Chaiyong Ratana-Angkura, editor-in-chief of the Thai edition of Wallpaper, the well-known international interior design magazine, told Saudi Gazette that modern Thai design was evolving and undergoing a transformation. “There is a sense,” he said, “in which Thai design is no longer interested in merely attempting to transform traditional Thai patterns and concepts into modern design or to create a fusion of Eastern and Western styles. Instead modern Thai designers have adopted an international style and imbued it with the Thai essence of “sabai sabai”, a truly Thai concept which incorporates a sense of comfort, color, ease and fun.” Pointing to the fashionable chair made of intricately woven strips of non-toxic, recyclable plastic in which he was sitting, he added, “This chair does not look Thai in a traditional sense, but its color, feel, style and comfort make it Thai “sabai sabai”. Perhaps an example of what Ratana-Angkura meant was a bathtub on display at the fair which had won a prestigious design award. This elegant, touch-controlled, functional home item, produced by Bathroom Design, is made of a gleaming translucent acrylic compound. There are no faucets, knobs, or obvious control devices and the smooth finish and design, which make the tub appear to be made out of a single, seamless piece of material, are such that this object would not seem out of place in a modern sitting room. Embedded in the body of the bathtub are 360 LED lights which change to five different colors in random patterns making the bathwater and room glow, creating a soothing celestial, starry-night atmosphere. The tub has touch controls for the colored lights, as well as for water temperature and pressure and is ergonomically designed to give maximum comfort and to use 60 percent less water than usual. Elegance, comfort, color, ease, a sense of fun: The Thai concept of “sabai sabai” applied to the world of design. While the design of the bathtub is environmentally conscious in that it saves on the use of water, there were other products at the fair that made use of recycled and natural materials. For example, Yothaka, the company that was the first in the world to make furniture out of the water hyacinth plant, is now designing a new line of furniture made from pineapple paper. The water hyacinth is a weed that clogs the rivers and streams of Southeast Asia and the use of it in furniture making has created jobs for villagers who have been taught how to harvest, dry and treat the plant. The furniture produced has a delicate texture and natural look that has made it popular around the world. However, Yothaka's latest innovation in the use of natural materials is furniture made from pineapple paper. Thailand is the first country in the world to produce pineapple fiber paper and this innovation has created new jobs in the Thai agricultural sector as farmers can now sell the fruit to canning factories and retain the fibrous green leaves for paper making. The paper is cut into strips which are colored with natural dyes and thousands of these are formed together to make chairs, stools and chaise lounges. A further ‘sabai sabai' innovation is that nanotechnology is used to imbue the paper strips with lemon grass oil. The oil is applied in such a way that the furniture itself does not give off a scent, but, when you sit or lie on, the heat of your body activates the oil, and, in a sort of spontaneous aromatherapy, you are surrounded by the refreshing smell of lemon grass. Pineapple paper furniture is a Thai innovation in the use of natural materials, but the story of how it came to be produced underlines another new current in the Thai lifestyle market: Cooperation among Thai exporters. Saudi Gazette spoke with Somchai Thanapolkiat, one of the co-owners of Yothaka and president of the Thai Design and Objects Association which groups together 98 companies producing lifestyle items for the purpose of exhibiting together in Thailand and overseas, solving mutual business problems and sharing ideas. Thanapolkiat said that the companies shared ideas in marketing and design, especially to help those who were new to the export business. When it was pointed out to him that by doing so he might be helping his competitors, he said, “No, that is the old way of looking at things. We find that by helping each other we can create new ideas which will in the end help us all reach a higher level of excellence”. One company which is a member of the association produces pineapple paper and as Thanapolkiat's furniture making company is also in the group, he said that a sort of “creative design synergy” took place which led to the concept of creating furniture from pineapple paper. Where, you might wonder, do Thai design ideas come from and what is influencing young Thai artists? Suwan Kongkhunthian, a well-known Thai designer, told Saudi Gazette about how his own design ideas were formed. “When I was young,” he said, “I wanted to look at everything foreign. I went to Europe and America and was greatly influenced by all the design fashions that I found there. But as I grew older, I returned to my roots and the designs that I produced began to reflect my Thainess. I think that that is the same thing that is happening with our young Thai designers today but maybe to a lesser extent. They are young, and they want to try out all ideas, but they will soon return to their Thai roots thus making Thai design even stronger.” Kongkhunthian was very encouraged by what he saw of young Thai artists and looked forward to a bright future for Thai design. “There are a large number of art and design schools in Thailand and the country is producing creative, exciting young designers in all fields. Thai design is becoming as well known in the world as Thai food with people coming here to find new design ideas. I think that one day we will be exporting young Thai designers to world markets,” he said. An example of the exciting design innovation that Kongkhunthian talked about is the concept of “material migration” being introduced by Morio, a Thai design company, under the brand name Take a Luxe, in which an attempt is made to produce material which appears to take on the properties of other material and assume its functions. Paper “becomes” rubber; rubber looks like metal; and metal resembles plastic in a marriage of state-of-the-art technology and innovative design. All of these transformations are merely optical illusions created by combining graphic design and printing technology, but they introduce an entirely new dimension to the visual experience making you want to reach out and touch objects to see if they are as soft or wet as they look or walk around them to watch as they seem to shimmer, change shape and create 3-D images. The innovative optical-effect technology produces materials which offer designers the chance to create unusual items. A water drop lamp creates the soothing illusion of sparkling drops of rain on the material's surface; 3-D and holographic designs are used in advertising or to decorate student's notebooks; and colorful, semitransparent crocodile mousepads, which project evocative illusions as the light shines through, are cleverly designed to keep a firm, no-slip grip on the computer table. All of this is Thai “sabai sabai” – pleasing to the eye, creating a sense of ease and comfort and in the end a lot of fun. The Bangkok International Gift Fair made it clear that Thai design is alive, well and, indeed, thriving. New ideas, different ways of looking at ordinary objects and an overriding sense of design from a particularly Thai point of view underscored the exciting innovation in the world of Thai design. While it can now safely be said that there are very few towns, large or small, in the world which do not have at least one Thai restaurant, it may not be too long before the same can be said about the ubiquitousness of Thai design. And perhaps when the day comes when people around the globe can eat Thai food in homes filled with Thai designed lifestyle items, our lives will all be just a bit more “sabai sabai”.
