Campus of Chulalongkorn University

Area map of the university grounds in 1925

The land now occupied by Chulalongkorn University had been cleared for paddy fields around the mid-19th century, and part of it had been claimed by Somdet Chaophraya Borommahaphichaiyat, a high-ranking noble under King Mongkut (Rama IV, r. 1851–1868). From 1880 to 1881, Mongkut's successor and the university's namesake King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, r. 1868–1910) bought up the land, intending it as the estate of a new country palace for his son Crown Prince Vajirunhis, which would become known (among several names) as Windsor Palace. The prince died before taking up residence there, and use of the palace was granted to the Survey School of the Royal Survey Department, then under the Ministry of Agricultural Administration. The school later became the School of the Ministry of Agricultural Administration; the outlying grounds were used for technical practice and became landscaped with irrigation canals.[1]

In 1911, King Vajiravudh (Rama VI, r. 1910–1925) founded the Civil Service College of King Chulalongkorn in honour of his father, and the school was incorporated into one of its departments. Vajiravudh also granted the college use of the entire estate, on a rental agreement with the Privy Purse. In 1917, the college was re-established as Chulalongkorn University.

Vajiravudh laid the foundation stone for the Administration Building on 3 January 1916.

The college's administration had laid out a plan for its physical development in 1913, with the eastern side dedicated to academic and administration buildings, and the western side used for agricultural research.[1] The first permanent structure, the Administration Building, was constructed from 1915 to 1921, and became the university's main building. It was followed by the Science Building in 1929 and Chakrabongse Building (hosting the student clubs) in 1933. These early structures, along with the Auditorium (1939), incorporated Thai-style elements with modern construction methods, in contrast to the increasing adoption of modernist architecture following the abolition of absolute monarchy in 1932, influences of which are seen in the Engineering and Physics buildings (1935), Matthayom Horwang School (1936), Chemistry Building (1940), and the Architecture, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical buildings (1941). The majority of these early buildings saw design contributions by Phra Sarotrattananimman, one of the first formally trained Thai architects.[2]

By the 1940s, the campus had come to comprise several buildings lining the large lawn in front of the Auditorium. New administrative buildings were built on the west side in 1941, while Windsor Palace had been demolished for the construction of Supachalasai Stadium (on land leased to the Department of Physical Education) in 1935. The University Preparatory School, situated north of the main cluster, was split off from the university in 1947 and became Triam Udom Suksa School and Patumwan Demonstration School. Together with Uthenthawai School of Construction, they occupy a block that splits the east part of the university campus into separate areas.

The university continued to expand in the second half of the 20th century, with new faculties spreading out to fill the campus. Meanwhile, the university began actively developing areas set aside for commercial real estate development. By the turn of the century, the city had expanded to completely surround the campus, which was now almost entirely built-up. The Monument of King Chulalongkorn and King Vajiravudh was built in 1987 at the end of the main lawn, while groves of rain trees were planted during the university's 80th anniversary. Further expansion in the 21st century necessitated the demolition of older structures to make way for high-rise buildings, several of which now dot the campus.[3]

The university owns 1,153 rai (184.5 ha; 456 acres) of land in Pathum Wan District, 637 rai (101.9 ha; 252 acres) of which is dedicated to academic use, while the rest is occupied by other institutions or commercially developed by the university.[4]

Most of the academic campus is taken up by the university's constituent faculties, the oldest of which are mostly clustered around the Auditorium and central lawn on the east side. These include the faculties of Arts, Science, Engineering, Architecture, and also Fine and Applied Arts. To the south are the faculties of Commerce and Accountancy, Economics, and Political Science. In the middle of this area are the Sala Phra Kieo multi-purpose hall and Chula Chakrabongse Building, which houses the student clubs and government. North of the main cluster, between Siam Square and the block occupied by Triam Udom Suksa School, are the faculties of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dentistry, and Veterinary Science, as well as buildings housing several research institutes.

The faculties of Education (including Chulalongkorn University Demonstration School), Law, and Communication Arts occupy the southern end of the campus's west side, while administrative offices, academic and sporting facilities, student dormitories, and other institutes take up most of the rest. Further north, across Soi Chulalongkorn 12 (which serves as a public road), the faculties of Sports Science, Nursing, Psychology, and Allied Health Sciences make use of several buildings which were reacquired by the university from the Department of Physical Education as their lease expired beginning in the 1990s.

East of Henri Dunant Road, the Faculty of Medicine shares its campus with King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital of the Thai Red Cross Society.

The campus is bordered to the north, west and south by areas of university land designated for commercial development by the university's Property Management Office or leased to other organizations. These include (anticlockwise from northeast) Siam Square, MBK Center, the National Stadium, the neighbourhoods of Suan Luang and Sam Yan, and Chamchuri Square.

The university campus features many noteworthy structures, some of which are listed as heritage buildings.[5][6]

The ownership status of the university land has been the subject of controversy on several occasions. In the 1970s, the university was criticized for pursuing commercial real-estate development, to which the faculty responded by laying out historical documents backing its position that Vajiravudh had explicitly intended the land as an endowment to provide income for the university. Calls by the Ministry of Finance for the land to be registered as government property were rebuffed by the 1939 Act of Parliament which transferred ownership of the land from the Crown Property Bureau to the university. More recently, in the 2010s, the university's Property Management Office drew criticism for its redevelopment plans which evicted long-standing communities. The university is also engaged in a long-standing conflict with the Uthenthawai Campus of Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok (the former Uthenthawai School of Construction), which occupies a plot of land which the university seeks to reclaim.[7]