Imagine transforming a disused trainyard into an urban park friendly to people and surrounding communities while also preserving ecologically important biological diversity, impact on water resources and functioning ecosystems.
Now imagine that you’re not in New York or Amsterdam or Seoul but Bangkok, where progressive urban planning has been not just off the table but something shrugged off by many as an impossibility.
Yet a coalition of activists and designers want to stoke the public’s imagination for the impossible with a fully realized vision for turning Bangkok’s last real significant undeveloped expanse into a project that would be a showcase to the world.
Future at stake: Designers imagine what Makkasan could be
Most of the work comes from urban designers at Shma Designs as well as students from the Arsom Silp Institute of the Arts.
Certainly powerful forces would see the area put through the same development grinder that’s resulted in most of the city’s wasteful, unsustainable and generally ugly expanses of concrete and glass. However these images serve to remind that we can only aim as high as our imaginations allow.
Photo: Arsom Silp Institute of the Arts
Images: Shma Designs
Reader Interactions