page_title: Jim Thompson (designer)
section_title: Thompson's "House on the Klong"
hierarchical_section_title: Jim Thompson (designer) / Thompson's "House on the Klong"
caption_attribution_description: English: Main House of Jim Thompson
context_page_description: James Harrison Wilson Thompson was an American businessman who helped revitalise the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s. At the time of his disappearance he was one of the most famous Americans living in Asia. Time magazine claimed he "almost singlehanded saved Thailand's vital silk industry from extinction".
context_section_description: Thompson was unlike any other figure in Southeast Asia. He was an American, an ex-architect, a retired army officer, a one-time spy, a silk merchant and a renowned collector of antiques. Most of his treasures, if not all, were amassed after he came to Thailand.
  In 1958, he began what was to be the pinnacle of his architectural achievement – the construction of a new home to showcase his objets d'art.
  Using parts of old up-country houses – some as old as a hundred years – he succeeded in constructing a masterpiece that involved the reassembling of six Thai dwellings on his estate. Most of the units were dismantled and brought over by river from Ayutthaya, but the largest – a weaver's house (now the living room) – came from Bangkrua. On arrival, the woodwork was offloaded and pieced together.
  In his quest for authenticity, he saw to it that some of the structures were elevated a full floor above the ground. During the construction stage, he added his own touches to the buildings by positioning, for instance, a central staircase indoors rather than having it outside. Along the way, he also reversed the wall panels of his quarters so that it now faced inside instead of it having an external orientation.
  After he was through with its creation, he filled his home with the items he had collected in the past. Decorating his rooms were Chinese blue-and-white Ming pieces, Belgian glass, Cambodian carvings, Victorian-era chandeliers, Benjarong earthenware, Thai stone images, Burmese statues, and a dining table which was once used by King Rama V of Thailand.
  It took Thompson almost a year to complete his mansion. Now a museum, the Jim Thompson House can be reached by public or private transport.
caption: Jim Thompson House: Main building (c. 2013).
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