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Published on July 22, 2007

Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC) has expanded its regional learning network by opening "Mini TCDC" in the two northern provinces of Lampang and Chiang Mai and the eastern province of Chon Buri.

TCDC Bangkok, which opened in November 2005 on the sixth floor of the Emporium shopping complex, covers 4,500 square metres of space and has more than 15,000 art-and-design titles on offer. In contrast, the mini TCDC - which some people are already calling the "nano TCDC" - in the three provinces, are housed in the corner of a university's library and take up about 10 square metres.

In Chiang Mai, it's at the library of Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Fine Arts while in Lampang, the centre is in the central library of Thammasat University. In Chon Buri, Burapha University's main library is playing host.

"For each venue, TCDC provides about 200 books relevant to domestic demands and the institute's learning requirements. The books will be rotated and exchanged on a quarterly basis. In Lampang, for instance, the teachers and students require more books on ceramics and jewellery designs while in Chiang Mai, they prefers fine art books," says TCDC managing director Chaiyong Rattana-ung-goon, who headed north for the  official opening of mini TCDCs in Chiang Mai and Lampang.

Apart from books, live broadcasting of seminars and lectures held at Bangkok's TCDC will be available to each institute on request.

"The venues may be small but they offer a gateway to the outside world," says Chaiyong.

"We will conduct evaluations of the project during the next six months to see how we can improve and augment the service, and extend it to other institutes.

"Mini TCDCs are being opened in Khon Kaen and Maha Sarakham next month. We'd like to extend the project to the Southern provinces but have yet to identify any partner institutes."

The most distinctive feature of the mini TCDCs, however, is the free online access to the database of Material ConneXion Bangkok, a branch of the New York materials library that's also found in Milan and Cologne.

In Bangkok, only platinum members of TCDC have access to this comprehensive resource centre devoted to international material innovations and including a database of suppliers.

"The material library currently displays more than 70 local raw materials from 44 firms. Among them are the woven decorative textiles produced by Daorath handicraft group in Lampang, which incorporate cotton with herb fibres. I believe it will inspire local designers to develop domestic products that can meet international demands," says Chompoonuj Weerakiti , director of Material ConneXion Bangkok.