KEEPSAKE (Something is never from nothing): An exploration of an architectural EXHIBITION KALM VILLAGE 3rd December 2022- 8th March 2023 Opening Reception with Chiang Mai Design Week Exhibition Participants : Junlaporn Nuntapanich (Northern Forest Studio) Monthon Paoaroon Bangkok Tokyo Architecture Curation by Kalm Village and Monthon Paoaroon Exhibition Design by Studio STA Exhibition CI and Graphic by Design Unit The Keepsake Exhibition explores the questions on the value of preservation and reusability in architectural practice, through the work of 3 architecture studios whose work investigates these concepts in a spectrum. In design terms, we might ask how we build an architecture that is not about control over space, but rather, is about living in a complex and diverse social and physical world and responding to that with humility. As well as not seeing existing context as a limitation, but as a latent potential for a design. This requires a rigorous interrogation of what is presently there on a site, what geographic, and ecological contexts are present, what histories and stories were made and are presently being made? Who and what is there, what are their narratives? This concept is in opposition to Tabula Rasa approach to architecture, which is the history of the cities in the twentieth century, a desire for sweeping renewal and creating a potential site for the construction of utopian dreams. Erasure always presents itself as necessary and benevolent, but what’s the alternative? How can the existing context be understood, valued, and further developed? How can care for heritage and new developments go hand in hand? And how can architecture anticipate new developments from the existing?