S44-7

The Dusit Sawan Thanya Maha Prasat Throne Hall: The Architectural Imagination of Ayutthaya Maha Prasat

Department of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

The Dusit Sawan Thanya Maha Prasat Throne Hall is the main throne hall that King Narai built for The Lavo Palace in Lopburi in 1666. The Ayutthaya period saw extensive explanations of this throne hall. The Throne Hall also depicts the use of cutting-edge technology in Ayutthaya architecture by foreigners. The entrance and windows were designed in pointed arched Indo-Persian style, which can still be seen in the current state of the throne hall. A contemporary sonnet written in King Narai's honor by Luang Srimahosot that describes the characteristics of the Throne Hall. It also corresponds to drawings from the record of Nicolas Gervaises, who illustrated the Lao Palace. However, the structure of the remaining throne hall is inextricably linked to all of the preceding information. As a result, the assumption was a hall with a gable roof connected to the main tower with a Mandop roof. This result is a design that is unrelated to the current perception and aesthetic of the Maha Prasat form in thai architecture. One of the unique interior decoration of this throne hall is the seamless mirror imported from France, representing Siam's modernism with ornamentation on par with France. who already decorates the mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. It also clearly demonstrates King Narai's and King Louis XIV's diplomatic ties. Pin holes that hold the mirror may be found all around the wall inside the Throne Hall. This research and virtual reconstruction of the Dusit Sawan Thanya Maha Prasat Throne Hall will assist in developing a new understanding the history of Thai architecture in the Maha Prasat style. The irregularity of the aforementioned designs could be an experiment before developing the ideal Rattanakosin Maha Prasat. Included in this is the use of new materials and construction technology from other nations that have been used in architecture before being developed into a distinctive identity in Thai architecture.