Organized by the Faculty of Architecture, Silpakorn University in collaboration with Fokke Moerel from MVRDV and Jago van Bergen from vanBergenKolpa
15-22 July 2012 at Faculty of Architecture, Silpakorn University
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BKK Adaptive City 2045: Bangkok, a vernacular metropolis, running on water
Workshop Brief
How can we reinvent BKK running on water? How can we balance contemporary architecture to the new (water) climate? How can we create metropolitan ambitions with ‘small things that matter’? Introduction Bkk today
The Bangkok River Delta runs on water. Its inhabitants drink, wash, transport and grow, based on large quantities of freshwater which is derived from river, sky and earth. A refined system used to control the coherency between incoming and outgoing streams in relation to the natural climate. Paddy fields, pile dwellings, floating markets, water streets and many more typologies used to be the ”building modules” of the city. However, since the second half of the 20st century cars are driving where boats used to carry, rivers are being walled, shopping malls have risen where markets used to float, canals have been built over, and industries have replaced water basins even though Bangkok floods every 5 years…. The 2011 Flood was the wakeup call for Bangkok. After the short term cleaning act grand works are being developed. Water-motorways around the city need to relieve 21st century Bangkok from its spilling artery by turning it into a modernly paved Metropolitan. Yet communities already started to adapt and innovate to the new water levels in the city pursuing their new daily life
Thesis: water and population dynamics
This workshop takes the Flood of 2011 as a recurrent condition and growth as a desired ambition. In 2045, 30% of land area that we currently know as Bangkok is under water. Another 40% is regularly flooded for 3 months each year; sometimes with water of up to 3m above sea level. Only around 5% of Bangkok will escape this fate and remains dry at all times. Various historical buildings have been permanently walled off to protect them from the encroaching flood. Only years after the big flood of 2011, the Royal Thai Government and Thai communities finally came to accept that water cannot be walled off and channeled forever, that the tolls it has taken on the country are heavy and pricey ones. Life in Bangkok is now different; living with water has once again become second nature to Bangkok residence. Yet, at the same time the increase in population (now at 82million), coupled with less land mass, has doubled the population density in habitable area of Bangkok. Methodology: design by research
This workshop will act as a time machine which travels back and forth between ‘before the flood’, ‘during the flood’ and after the flood’ of 2011 - to learn from history in order to develop strategies for living in the future. We take for a fact that the water level is rising, the interval between floods is getting smaller and the population will be doubled by 2045. In other words, the adaptive approach of disaster management is certainly not enough for Bangkok 2045 to keep its head above the water. Water should be studied and analyzed in terms of its quantity and quality. Even the downside of dynamic water levels should be transformed into a positive perspective. The opportunities of waters of good use should become part of the future city’s program and planning and be a benefit for everyday life. The workshop will focus on 1 site, for the best comparable outcome. The inner city program will double with the growth of the population (eating, living, working, making, moving, hosting and breathing). Each team will be given a guiding water managing strategy for utmost unambiguous and provocative proposals. All teams are given the 3 questions- ‘before, during and after’- in order to create sustainable and innovative designs. The result should be a research towards a new and adaptive building typology. BKK Adaptive City 2045 Silpakorn July 2012
Workshop Structure
1 STRATEGY: BKK adaptive city 2045
Each team will have a designated strategy according to which they will have to explore the opportunities of the site. Each team is to propose a scenario for life in 2045 Bangkok, in relationship to the given programmatic topics. At the same time, consider an architecture typology that will survive this new way of life and how it will response to the moving thresholds of water and land.
7 different water managing strategies to manage dynamic water levels:
1. Storage: storing the water in a tank, basin, tower; in, on top or below a building
2. Porous: directing water through pockets, canals with program right next to it
3. D***s: keeping the water out and built below sea level
4. Float: floating program on the water
5. Elevated: lifting program above the water
6. Underwater: buildings below water level
7. Sponge: a merge of water and program, program absorbing water
2 SITE: Learning from history
The workshop will take Bang Phlad area as its test case. The area is framed on 2 sides by water: the Chao Phraya River and Khlong Bangkok Noi. Furthermore It has all ingredients of authentic and modern Bangkok: a large Khlong, small scale water ways, rural communities, a highway, a train line and station, a pier, a metro, a huge shopping mall and furthermore various densities. On top of that there are historic preservation areas as well as newly to be developed plots. Each team will carry out a site survey with a focus on learning how the communities have adapted to water during previous years. What changes they have made after the 2011 flood, and how they have been preparing for the potential of another floods this year: before-during-after. What can we learn from the previous flood?
3 PROGRAMMATIC TOPICS: Living with water
The programmatic topics are the ones found on the site: eating, living, working, making, moving, hosting and breathing. It will be an average mix of functions. Towards 2045 however the program will have to double, just like the area’s population. What are the specifics of this area when it comes to the programmatic topics? How would this program interact with: climate characteristics, yearly and seasonal rainfall, resulting water levels (before, during, after), water qualities (polluted, nutritious, salt/sweet) and water consumption and usages? How will BKK 2045 eat-, live-, work-, make-, move-, host- and breath-……with Water?
4 RESULT: a new building typology
The result should be a research towards a new building typology, proving the adaptivity of every day program of an inner city location to the dynamics of water levels and population growth. The water managing strategy of that particular site should be an exemplary project for the city. How will you convince the city/community? With a recruiting trailer!
