Using her native Bankok as an example, the speaker details her recently completed project: Chulalongkorn Centenary Park. First she puts the problem on the table. Major delta cities, including New York. London, Shanghai and more are sinking. Bankok submerges one centimeter every year, which would mean that the metropolis will be below sea level by 2030.
Historically, Thai people were ‘amphibious’ (i.e. embraced life on land and water). However, nowadays, due to rapid urbanization and the increase in concrete surface, excessive flooding leads to disasters. This becomes clear in 2011 with “Thailand’s most devastating and damaging flood in history.” Kotchakorn Voraakhom sees this event as proof that modern infrastructure is unable to cope with the rapid impacts of climate change. During her lecture on flooding, the urban landscape architects offer a feasible solution, which is achieved by ‘reconnecting concrete areas with nature’.
The Chulalongkorn Centenary Park aims to address this problem. The project presents “the first new public park [in Bangkok] in almost 30 years.” As shocking as that may sound, the park’s architectural layout and functional systems are extremely clever.
Kotchakorn Voraakhom’s landscape initiative not only provides an aesthetic quality to the urban city and a place where people gather and exercise. It also gives Bangkok a dynamic solution that addresses the city’s flooding problem. In the Chulalongkorn Centenary Park, certain infrastructures have been constructed that help in the sustainable confrontation of climate change. The entire space is inclined to collect rain – this includes a green roof that disperses the rain, wetlands with native aquatic plants that can filter the water, and a pond that collects excess liquid. The system promotes the cyclicity of the resource.
