DESIGN OF PUBLIC RELATIONS MEDIA FOR THE GLASS CHAPEL IN THE MIDDLE OF WAT WEERACHOTE THAMMARAM’S BASIN

Abstract

The glass chapel in the middle of Wat Weerachote Thammaram’s basin is an artistic building built on the 30 rai of land donated by Chote Banyong Family in 1993 to develop the abbey into a temple. The additional lands were later donated, bringing the total to 83 rai. The chapel was designed by Phraraj Brahmayan (Reverend Father Ruesi Ling Dam), who was a teacher of the first and current abbot – Phrakhru Ong-Art Apagaro. Its architectural decoration contains Thai-style patterns and interior sculptures. Currently, there has been no one collecting this information and studying how to create a public relations media design to publicize the beauty of this captioned chapel for public acknowledgement, including access to this chapel. This research study therefore aims to collect the data of the interior sculptures of the chapel and design the public relations media for public acknowledgement including a location map to this chapel for interested persons in terms of study and tourist visit. Data collection consists of the primary one gained through 3 methods; 1) an interview on the history of the chapel with the abbot and disciples, 3 people gave similar information on the construction term for gathering of facts, 2) Thai-style pattern term with 3 Thai-style pattern experts gave similar information that Thai-style patterns have been created since the old days with tradition but indefinite form. In each era, Thai-style patterns were created in various forms, 2. As per the survey forms, the architectural decoration of the chapel was in 21 Thai-style patterns consisting of Kranok, lotus flower and intertwined sprays combined and shown through the sculptures on the chapel. In view of data collection for designing public relations media, the questionnaires were distributed to 340 informants from which the location map and the layout within the temple including the leaflet information were gained for further designing of the temple public relations media. The findings from this study for the media design were based on the concept of “Ancient but Contemporary”.