Francoise Montocchio was born in 1935, in Thailand, to a French/Vietnamese translator working at the French Embassy in Bangkok, and granted was French citizenship in 1939. After completing school in Thailand, Montocchio worked with the Dutch architect Peter Suerendrech and the engineer, Giorgio Accineli, before joining the practice of Trunee Bunnag. He then appears to have raised enough money to enable him to attend higher education, studying at the Catholic Assumption College, Bangkok. After a further seven years of work he moved to Belgium to continue his education, training at the Institut Saint-Luc de Tournai, from 1959 - however was then called up to fight for the French in Algeria for nearly 28 months. On his return, he re-entered the 3rd Year at the Institut and graduated in 1965, soon afterwards moving to Paris and working for the office of Jean Vergnaud. During this period he is recorded as enrolled on the 1968-69 postgraduate ‘General Design’ course run by the Architectural Association’s (AA) Department of Development and Tropical Studies, in London. He soon returned to Bangkok (he was to take the Thai name of Thawithawat Manthanakarn in 1975) and was working for Intaren Co. Ltd from 1970, where he was to oversee the construction of the Esso Building (1971). In 1973 he established his own practice, as ‘FMA Architects & Engineers Co., Ltd’, designing a number of significant commercial and office buildings including the Thai Life Insurance office building (1975) on Rama IV Road. His most celebrated work, however, is within the field of religious architecture, perhaps his most outstanding work including the Raphael Church, Samat Prakan (1979), complete with hyperbolic paraboloid roof structure (recently undergoing restoration), the Saint Anna Church, Samut Sakhon (1983), the Saint Roche, Chachoengsao (1983-87) and the Holy Spirit Chapel (1983), located within St. Louis Hospital, Bangkok. 

 Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1968-69. AA Archives
• ‘Francois Montocchio and Architecture for Worship’, March, 2025, ASA Journal (Association of Siamese Architects Under Royal Patronage). Accessed 7th January, 2026: https://asajournal.asa.or.th/interview-francois/