With the abrupt change that accompanied the arrival of European art and architectural styles during the late 19th century, Bangkok of the 20th century emerged as an international city, emulating Western urban formation and leaving behind its former structure of canals and teak buildings along the riverside. “Venice of the East” was effaced; replacing it are layers of different modern architectural styles, in which “modern” is defined variously according to different contemporaneous Euro-American architectural currents, imported into Thailand through different means. Over the century, however, the fabrication of “the East-meets-West” architecture occasionally occurred. But by the end of the century, the mass of concrete high-rise buildings has become an unprecedented image of Bangkok’s skyline. The proliferation of Western influence on Bangkok architecture during the first half of the century was largely due to the sociopolitical reformation during the late 19th and early 20th centuries...