The Robot Building – located in the commercial district of Sathorn in downtown Bangkok, the capital of Thailand – is now barely recognizable, except for its square shape. The Thai branch of Singapore’s United Overseas Bank (UOB), the current owner, is renovating the building to make it more energy-efficient and welcoming for its occupants.

The architect of the building, Sumet Jumsai, who is now 84 years old, has expressed his dismay at the significant changes planned for this example of Southeast Asian postmodernism, describing it as “defacement”.

Originally designed for the Bank of Asia and completed in 1986, the building earned the nickname Robot Building because Jumsai drew inspiration from one of his son’s robot-shaped toys. The underlying idea of the project was to embody the significant changes that the banking industry was undergoing at the time, driven by the integration of new computer technologies.

Jumsai has stated that this renovation project demonstrates the “ignorance and arrogance of corporations” and has requested at least the preservation of the building’s characteristic “eyes” on its twenty floors. However, as reported by Jumsai to CNN, the bank has stated that the renovation will bring the Robot Building – one of the few monuments from that era to survive the rapid urban development of the city in the last twenty years – “into a new era while paying homage to its heritage”. A replica of the original building will be placed in a corner of the lobby.

Opening image: photo by Chainwit from wikimedia commons