This amazing building in Thailand is built to look like a giant elephant complete with yellow tusks.
The 32-storey building based on the country’s national animal is found in the Chatuchak district of capital Bangkok.
Arun Chaiseri Consulting Engineers Company Limited started the construction of the iconic structure in 1991.
It was designed by 75-year-old Thai national artist Ong-art Satraphan to build three connecting towers – two offices and one residential tower – with a seven-story block connecting the towers.
The building’s current CEO Piyawat Chaiseri, 66, son of its original owner Arun Chaiseri, 84, said his father changed the original design so that it looked more like a jumbo.
He said: “My family was living in a condominium tower and we had a model of the [original design] of the building. My kid saw it and said to me ‘Wow, the building looks like an elephant’.”
“Coincidently, my father, Professor Arun Chaiseri, has always been fond of elephants. He has a collection of elephant models in the house as he believed that elephants are signs of luck.
“He was working with the architecture team and called me to discuss changing the design to be an elephant. We all agreed that it was a brilliant idea.”
The elephant tower has named one of the “20 World’s Most Iconic Skyscrapers” in 2011 by CNN.The elephant is the national animal of Thailand. An estimated 2,000 elephants are living in the country’s wild and a similar number in captivity. In the wild, they roam through the deep jungle and in the country’s protected national parks.
