ARCH'IT files / Walter Aprile, Rachaporn Choochuey, Stefano Mirti, Luca Poncellini. Bangkok, February 2002

	Bangkok, February 2002.
[in italiano]	We are writing these notes from Bangkok: we are running a one week workshop with the students of the Master Class in Visual Arts of Rangsit University. We work on the theme: "Simple tech for a complex world". We investigate how to build a temporary pavillion + website next May in Quarrata.	[06feb2002]
Street scene in Bangkok, tuk-tuk, Chinatown area. Temple ruins in Ayutthaya, ancient capital of Siam.	The website and the pavillion will complement each other: there is One exhibition, and it has a digital side, that lives on the Web, and a physical side, that lives in the town of Quarrata. The exhibition design benefits also from the input of the Mayor of Quarrata, Stefano Marini; he represents the municipality and lets us hear a voice that comes from outside the design world.
	"Simple Tech"; the building has to be made of cheap materials. Of course it is difficult to build an attractive exhibition using simple things, like scaffolding, sheet plastic, mosquito net... but it is an interesting problem. Even more interesting; since physical and digital are two pieces of the same exhibition, can we build a web site using the same principles? What is the equivalent of simple, cheap and attractive in the digital world?	Instant noodles. Long boat. Small Buddhist altar in a market.
	The workship at Rangsit University is the cultural layer of the work. But we believe that lasting relationships also have a commercial/economical layer. So while the design work progressed, some of us were meeting local leather producers. The students are working hard, with our support, to define the project for the website and the installation, while the Mayor is spinning like a top in endless meetings and negotiations, Italian Embassy, Italian-Thai chamber of commerce, ICE. And tanneries; is it possible to buy leather in Thailand and bring it to Quarrata, in order to get a better price.
	We mix culture and trade; we are going to show Bangkok to Quarrata, and we are already imagining that we can show Quarrata and its product to Bangkok. Trade of goods, trade of ideas. With the transformation of Lenzi factory Quarrata opened itself to a fruitful contamination from external world. Now we are working toward the next steps: to bring Quarrata around the world, to increase the quality and quantity of exchanges, both cultural and financial. While in Quarrata are working in order to complete the last building sites coming from the Europan 3 projects, the Mayor is already thinking ahead. The Medicean villa that will become the head quarter of the master course, the cooperation with the East-Coast American university, the tunnel that will cut through the mountain connecting Quarrata to Empoli, these new exchanges with South-East Asia. As soon as we get back we will keep you informed about the next steps of the project, here it is pretty hot but the mood is very good... sincerely yours, Walter Aprile, Rachaporn Choochuey, Stefano Mirti, Luca Poncellini


	All the pictures are by Walter Aprile.


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