By Kerrie Butts and Nilay Mistry
International Program in Design and Architecture
Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University
for S.L.U.M. LAB: Last Round Ecology 2011
Management of water resources has been a constant force in the physical and cultural formation of Bangkok, Thailand. Natural and artificial waterways facilitated an agrarian settlement in the 17th century while canal pollution and land subsidence from groundwater depletion are issues facing the modern day capital. Fine clay soil and abundant precipitation within the Chao Phraya River Basin created a swamp forest in the region that encompasses Bangkok. The area was prone to annual flooding but was at a defensible location along the river shipping route. The first canals of Bangkok were dug outside of the city walls in 1771 as a moat. As the city expanded to the east, subsequent canals were dug for defense measures as well as for transportation of agricultural goods to the city gates. Former defense canals were linked to facilitate drainage in the capital and regularized land parceling.
Minor canals outside of the city walls allowed farmers irrigation and transportation for small boats. Slender agricultural plots provided canal frontage to the maximum amount of farming families while creating plot subdivisions that were manageable for the periodic flooding required for rice propagation by hand. Homes on agricultural plots were typically elevated in anticipation annual flooding during the rainy season. Buildings were often located adjacent to canals for easy access to waterways and to employ passive cooling from water circulation beneath the interior living spaces. Market activity took place in the canals between small boats carrying goods.
Paved roads were introduced in Bangkok in the second half of the 19th century after the Bowring Treaty with the British eased trade restrictions with Siamese merchants. Agreements with both the British and French allowed Thailand to avoid colonization while becoming a valuable trade center for the Southeast Asian region. Production of export crops such as sugar and rice rose dramatically in the coming decades and transport of large quantities of goods was shared between ground and water routes. Roads were built along existing major canal routes or often directly on top of narrow canals where two boats could not easily pass each other. Surface roads came to dominate Bangkok’s transportation improvements in the early 20th century while the increasingly severed canal network served as open drain lines for the city. The shophouse building typology arose in Thailand’s cities by influence from a wealthy Chinese merchant class. The 3.5 meter wide buildings provided as many tenants as possible with precious street frontage and accommodated narrow plot dimensions remnant from agricultural land use.
The latter half of the 20th century saw further densification within Bangkok and pollution of the remaining canals. Waste from scattered septic systems is continually fed into the canals rather than to a centralized waste management facility. Demand for reliable drinking water led to excessive pumping of subgrade aquifers and land subsidence for the entire city at a current rate of 10 cm per year. The inefficiencies of a road network based on canal morphology plagues the city with constant traffic jams. The introduction of rapid transit in the form of the elevated SkyTrain in 1999 and MRT subway in 2004 was made possible by tracing the wide right-of-ways of the largest roads in the city in order to reduce property demolition. Many new stations provide retrofit entrances into adjacent high-rise buildings that seal passengers from vibrant Bangkok street life. Property near the new train stations have become increasingly desirable for development and a recent explosion in high-rise condominium construction attempt to spread wealthy residents along the route of public transit. Overdevelopment of luxury real estate today neglects the needs of the majority of Bangkok’s residents who live in near poverty conditions, similar to actions prior to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Urban water management infrastructure must strive to engage with the site specific social context to maximize potential of intervention within informal communities. The following design proposals for Bangkok call for more than just innovative water management solutions but also the creation of gathering spaces which offer effective economic and ecological benefits to that community.
The
Muslim faith was brought to the Ban Krua community by the Cham people
of Cambodia who were granted land after supporting Siam in the Nine
Armies War in 1785. Members of this community dug the San Saeb Canal in
1837 and created deviation in the routing to avoid their mosques and
cemeteries. This canal still serves as a major transportation route for
Bangkok via frequent water taxis. Islam remains heavily practiced in
the Ban Krua community and livestock is raised in this unlikely urban
condition to supplement Halal diets. This project addresses stormwater
management issues common to many canalside communities in Bangkok while
integrating additional goat grazing areas on the site. With such little
space available on land, a vegetated corridor constructed above the
edge of the canal creates a grazing surface for animals while treating
stormwater before release into the canal. Additional paving near
bridges that cross over the San Saeb Canal supplement existing gathering
spaces adjacent to shops and clothes washing facilities.
After the Khlong Toei port opened in the late 1940's, thousands of farm workers from rural Thailand migrated to Bangkok in search of work as port labor. Much of the north end of port property lay vacant due to its tendency to flood so many employees avoided high rental fees by settling informally on site. The port was owned by a government agency, the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT), and Thai land tenure laws allow limited rights to squatters on public land to make minor infrastructure improvements to improve living conditions such as sewage disposal systems. Many early homes in Khlong Toei employed a single chamber cesspool system which leached untreated sewage into the high water table. Demand for space grew as port operations required container storage and warehouses on site. Campaigns by the PAT in the 1970’s to evict or relocate portions of the informal settlement caused a series of violent clashes between law enforcement and residents. Temporary land sharing agreements have allowed for some relocation of residents into dense forms of multistory housing blocks within the site. In recent years, port activities have been reduced in Khlong Toei due to new deep sea ports along the Gulf of Thailand. Many residents have been forced to find work away from the port within other districts of Bangkok as food vendors or other unskilled labor. This proposal addresses the legal hurdles to retrofitting modern sanitary pipes within the Khlong Toei community by introducing multichambered septic tanks to shared toilet facilities within the settlement. By strategically locating these facilities throughout the community, a new network of social gathering spaces are created as relief from the narrow walkways typical for the community. Stormwater collected from roofs of the lavatory will decrease water demands for the well-ventilated facility. Biogas generated from the collected waste can be collected and stored for use within adjacent homes as well as in food vendor carts which would reduce fuel costs for the community.
SOURCES
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Student Work from International Program in Design and Architecture, Chulalongkorn University. Project by: Nuphap Anuyanuphap, Irin Ariyatanaporn, Punyawee Chamornmarn, Samara Eamegdoo, Nawamin Reangpo, Hirun Sanghirun, Kantiya Tansiri, Lalida Temthavornkul . |
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