Khlong Toei: Vibrant Grounds for an Ingenious City
Year: 2024
Studio: Bangkok Porous City
Instructors: Anita Berrizbeitia, Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, Kotchakorn Voraakhom
Housing approximately 100,000 unregistered persons, the
forty informal communities within Khlong Toei are hardworking and
self-organizing. Despite the inaccessibility of basic services and their
exposure to environmental risks, the informal sector of Thailand accounts for
58% of the GDP. In the forthcoming development of the port district, existing proposals
exclude affordable housing and disregard the informal sector. Rather than displacing
these long-term residents, this project urges stakeholders to build upon the local
wealth of skills and ingenuity, proposing a mixed-use enterprise district for
Khlong Toei.
Proposed site plan for Mixed Enterprise District providing a variety of housing and production spaces centered around a public park.
The shophouse typology, seen all throughout Bangkok, hybridizes
housing and production for low- to middle-income families. Leveraging its
unique relationship to the ground, the proposal deploys the shophouse model for
all housing sectors to interrogate the ground at scale, forging both indoor and
outdoor spaces that unify business, recreation, and domestic life.
Existing shophouse typology conditions demonstrate extensive vulnerability for informal workers, with nearly all sources of income depending on an impervious ground condition susceptible to flooding.
91% of informal workers rely on the ground level for
their income, working directly out of their homes or moving through the city as
street vendors and motorcycle taxi drivers. In 2021, daily rainfall during the
monsoon season was 224 millimeters. Without permeable pavement or canalized
water networks, floodwater becomes an economic impediment for local families.
Proposed ground conditions showcase one type of ground-level intervention, the bioswale with retention tank, capable of capturing local stormwater runoff and maintaining an active ground plane. Covered arcades and outdoor markets beneath housing complement and support local informal economies.
Reintroducing
a multifaceted canal network to the local landscape, the ground not only reduces flooding
risks but also facilitates the delivery of goods and services to local businesses.
The canal networks’ adjacency to production-based housing provides a necessary mutualistic
system for environmental adaptation and economic resilience.
Winding canals spill out to a large central waterbody at the heart of the local park and can by used for local tourism and commuting. Linear canals also provide local transit while facilitating the transportation of goods, services, and municipal waste.
The development of market rate units along the park can deploy a public-private partnership model, allowing for encroachment into the park in return for funding ongoing maintenance of public infrastructure, including the centralized park. By accommodating a larger footprint for the park in the initial phases of development, the region can anticipate market-level growth while preserving WHO standards for open green space for an expanded population.