Elephant Theater: A Pavilion Made from Elephant Dung

In 2020 Bangkok Project Studio visited the village of Ta Klang in Thailand, a village famous for its elephant pets. The founder of Bangkok Project Studio, Boonserm Premthada found a lot of elephant dung along the village road. Seeing that Boonserm Premthada experimented with making bricks from elephant dung. They studied its properties, then tried to use elephant dung as a construction material.

Boonserm Premthada designed Elephant Theater

In its experiments, Bangkok Project Studio noted that elephant dung has a spherical shape with a diameter of 180 millimeters in dark green but its color changes to brownish green after exposure to air. Bricks made of elephant dung are made one by one by forming in molds and then dried without using the brick burning process to avoid the appearance of harmful carbon dioxide. In addition, elephant dung can naturally decompose and return to being part of the soil.

Boonserm Premthada said, "Usually herbivorous animals eat Napier grass, making the manure they emit fibrous making it suitable for use in brick making."

Elephant Theater is circular

In 2022 Boonserm Premthada built a pavilion "elephant theater" as part of the Biennale Architecture and Landscape of Versailles located in France. This is the result of the application of brick bricks made of elephant dung. One brick has a diameter of 255 millimeters with a thickness of 50 millimeters. The circle in the central part serves as a space for the structure of the steel reinforcement pole.

The Elephant Theater is made of elephant dung brick arrangements 

The circular building is made of steel pole structures with piles of bricks arranged to form a closed space without a roof. Upon entering the pavilion, visitors will be greeted with colorful fabrics waving at the entrance from the pavilion. Inside there is a path that is the visitor's access to see the space inside the pavilion. In addition, there is also a small garden that opens up to the sky, sunlight, and air expressing the stunning elegance of nature.

The Elephant Theater is made of elephant dung brick arrangements 

Inside the pavilion is a small garden that opens to the sky

Bricks made from elephant dung can be a small start for humans to reconsider the positive impacts that arise for the world.

"My work will continue to tell the story of rural communities, the environment, and natural resources, to make people realize the importance of things they don't see," Boonserm Premthada said.

Elephant Theater as part of the Biennale Architecture and Landscape of Versailles