Back to Gallery Index

Case Studies in Architectural Design | Instructor: Raveevarn Choksombatchai

infrastructure from Oxford Dictionary n: the basic physical and organizational structures (e.g. buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.

from TechEncyclopedia n: (1) The fundamental structure of a system or organization. The basic, fundamental architecture of any system (electronic, mechanical, social, political, etc.) determines how it functions and how flexible it is to meet future requirements. (2) May refer to system and development programs in contrast to applications. A computer system's infrastructure would include the operating system, database management system (DBMS), communications protocols, compilers and other development tools.

The studio proposes to investigate the possibility of a new urban morphology that is responsive to emerging complexity of the network of systems within growing contemporary urban landscape. Parametric Design Process, Digital computation from collected data, and qualitative analysis utilizing cinematic methods w/ precisely calculated scale and time-based method will be used as methods of investigation and design speculation.

Theoretical Framework. Like many fast growing cities, Bangkok and many cities in the Southeast Asia region suffer from the repercussion of the inability to provide growing network of infrastructure in order to keep up with the rapid increase in population. This proposal suggests a study for a possibility of a new urban morphology in which the hybridization of architecture in a city and network of infrastructure including a rapid public transportation system takes place.

Traditionally, despite the fact that architecture in the city has always been considered as a physical construct that is designed to efficiently tap into existing infrastructure. It has always been designed and operated largely as an additional node or figure emerges independently out of programmatic demands mostly driven by economic ambitions. As a result, many of these growing figures in cities like Bangkok rely on existing infrastructure to feed into them, creating a short circuit of supplies and a nightmare of stagnated spatial flow. The new morphology of this hybrid suggests a design process that operates in a larger and more expansive field, not an isolated figure.

Research-Based Exploration. In order for the hybridization to occur, the existing network of infrastructure must be thoroughly studied to understand the organic nature and performative behavior of the network as a system.

Generic VS Particular. The studio will put an emphasis on generic conditions of contemporary urban landscape as one of the twenty-first century phenomena. The design process proposes to look for an anomaly out of what is seemingly homogeneous, banal, and ordinary.

As opposed to nostalgic approach, the studio intends to understand cultural context as the foundation of understanding the urban phenomena at this moment in time. The process and method will reveal the ever-changing re-invention of contemporary Southeast Asian culture, contemporary urban lifestyle, its idiosyncrasy and its paradox, which is uniquely present.

Design Tools and Methods. The use of new media and digital technology aids the design process to identify behavior of the complex and organic nature of specific infrastructural system.

Parametric Design Process using digital computation from collected data to create complex lateral relationships suggests possible emerging, more comprehensible patterns and/or organizational models. Qualitative analysis utilizing cinematic methods w/ precisely calculated scale and time-based method will also be introduced as methods of investigation and design speculation.

Existing Infrastructural Network. Major systems infrastructure in Bangkok Metropolitan area include roads, avenues highway system, railway system, Bangkok Mass Transit System Skytrain (BTS), Bangkok Subway System (which is part of the New Mass Rapid Transit Network under jurisdiction of Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand), and system of bus boat along the main Chao Praya River and Canal System.

We will also be working directly with a Professor in Infrastructure Planning, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Chulalongkorn University, Dr. Panit Pujinda, who can be a great resource and a lead to other possible relevant resources for our design exploration.

Site: The site is along the Chao Praya River in Ta-Tien, Bangkok. It was the site of a former World Bank, which is now proposed by the Ministry of Culture and Science to develop into a Discovery Museum.

Sarah Roberts

Bryant Vock

Camey Yeh

Christine Hoff

Grant Chang

Leah McCloskey

Liwen Zhang

Samaa Elimam

Samantha Kanagaraj