Constructing Suvarnabhumi:
A Photographic Study During Construction of the New Bangkok International Airport
Carl J. D’Silva

ISBN-10: 974-93619-8-9
ISBN-13: 978-974-93619-8-6
2006. 105pp, 255x255 mm, 49 b/w photographs, B950

This book of black-and-white photographs is a powerful collection of images taken during the construction of the new Bangkok airport. Forty-nine, full-page photographs portray the unexpected beauty of repeating patterns of steel, glass, and concrete combining to create a work of art in progress. Looking through the eyes and lens of the on-site architect, the marvelous geometry of frames and columns, wall and roof, come into sharp focus. Cold clean lines, precisely repeating curves, negative and positive space, shapes within shapes in trusses and meshes—these are the raw elements of this superlative visual feast of architectural images. The back cover design featuring the forty-nine photographs in miniature is itself a stunning work of art.

All full-page images in this study were taken with a Hasselblad 501CM, with 80mm lens, using Ilford Delta 100 film.

Carl J. D’Silva is an Associate Principal Architect at Murphy/Jahn Architects in Chicago, where he has been working since 1994. He worked on the Passenger Terminal Complex design for the new Suvarnabhumi Airport from 1996–2006 and served as the on-site Project Architect during the construction phase.