Studio Brief and Manual

The text below was copied from the studio brief distributed on the first day of class.  A PDF of the brief can be downloaded by clicking here.

Image by Andrew TenBrink

_STUDIO INTRODUCTION

The publicly owned streets of Bangkok are often filled with the overlapping uses of circulation and commercial activity.  Retail and cooking on city sidewalks is supported by private enterprises ranging in scale and formality from the single owner vending cart to the multinational franchise convenience store.  These forms of commercial activity on city streets are vital to the economic stability of many Bangkok residents while providing ready access to inexpensive daily use goods within densely populated areas of the city.  This field of activity on Bangkok streets, and emergent market spaces, is regarded as an attraction to the many tourist visitors to the city but demands for modern amenities have led to formation of other public space typologies in the city with varying degrees of accessibility.  The interconnected malls of Siam Square, for example, provide large air conditioned spaces for knowledgeable visitors to browse imported luxury goods behind entrances monitored by private security.  Elevated public transportation systems introduced within the past two decades offer direct access to newly built shopping facilities and residences, physically stratifying economic classes within the city.   Affordable mobile communication devices and social networking platforms have reduced the need for gathering worldwide compared to previous generations.  While the amount of activity on Bangkok streets is not under threat, new forms of semi-public space and communication mark emerging cultures within Thai urban society.  How can we foster public spaces within Bangkok to question socio-economic thresholds and welcome a wide variety of urban participants?  Are such spaces physically impossible and must we instead explore the virtual realm facilitated by digital technology for effective discussion and exchange between citizens?

Public parks serve a vital form of public space in cities due, in part, to the opportunity for respite from the activity of the street.  How have Bangkok’s parks been affected by changes in public space use?  Parks are typically conceived as being more heavily vegetated than the urban context.  Ample amounts of trees and turf grass provide a pleasant single surface on which pedestrians can sit, stroll, or play casual sports.  These notions have led to the global trade of plant material, formal gestures, and spatial sequences in spite local climate, social custom, or history.  Parks are often referred to as ‘natural’ simply because the English Picturesque style blatantly avoids straight lines.  As with shopping malls, amenities offered by private owners easily outperform public agencies so the fragmented roof gardens of condo developments draw public park users behind familiar property boundaries. These designed spaces cost governments worldwide untold amounts in unnecessary maintenance simply because of large panels of turf grass.  In recent years, there has been a turn to consider parks as performative landscapes which employ landscape processes to solve larger contextual issues, such as stormwater management or brownfield remediation.  While this move provides parks with a greater infrastructural purpose, the spatial experience these parks offer the local user is still of great importance.  Social, economic, and resource networks that affect the operations of cities now affect the performance of landscapes as much as ever.

This studio seeks to question the role of the park in contemporary Bangkok within the context of local, national, and global networks.  Can local programmatic demands coexist with ecological performative landscapes?  Can these relationships generate new connections, forms, and programmatic opportunities in built space?  How do local, regional, and global networks resonate in design decisions when designing in the urban context?  Finally, what is a park?

_BASIC DELIVERABLES OF STUDIO


Research paper     
Thesis on topic of student choice, eight written pages (2000-3000 words).  Supporting diagrams, mappings, and images to be included as appendices or integrated in layout.  Properly sourced with citations as per university policy. 


Blog postings         
A minimum of two postings are to be made by each student each week related to ongoing research, site analysis, or other information relevant to the studio.


Intervention
Minimum site intervention of 1 hectare.  Project to be expressed at 1:500 scale or smaller. 


Case Studies       
A review and analysis of projects and built space in Bangkok and around the globe.  Research to be presented on three or more A2 sized boards.

_COURSE GRADING

                Case studies::                    10%

                Blog postings::                    5%

                Attendance::                     10%

                Thesis paper::                    15%

                Midterm presentation::         20%

                Final presentation::             35%

                Documentation DVD::           5%

_SCHEDULE

RESEARCH + CASE STUDIES ::  Weeks 1-4

The design of the landscape within Bangkok will begin with students taking a proactive role in defining and pursuing topics of their own interest for investigation.  Students will use the book “The Craft of Research”, as a methodological reference for narrowing their interests to plausible research topics.  These topics can relate to the context of Bangkok at a scale defined by the student and will generate a thesis which will guide your intervention.  Broad interests are narrowed to topics, which lead to questions, culminating in a thesis or argument defended by the student in a spatial proposal.  An interim abstract, introduction, conclusion (totaling 1000 words minimum), and list of sources is due for review during week 6.  Topics may include, but are not limited to:

Social
Family, Community, Gender Issues, Ethnicity, Recreation
Economic
Credit Crisis, International Trade

 Natural Ecology
Rising Sea Levels, Land Subsidence, Deforestation, Pollution

 Technological
Mobile Telecommunications, Social Networking

 Infrastructural
Waste, Energy, Food, Transport, Water, Sewage, Agriculture

 Political
Party System, Democracy, Communism

               

To build an understanding of public space typologies in Bangkok and around the world, case study research/analysis will be performed by each student.  Each student will be responsible for presenting one Bangkok site and one international site but the research and graphic production can be shared in pairs or small groups to facilitate comparison of sites.  The list of sites can be expanded with instructor approval.

INTERNATIONAL SITES Schouwbergplein AND Oosterschlededan Flood Barrier Downsview Park Competition Fresh Kills AND Governor’s Island Gas Works Park Parc de la Villette Competition Central Park, NYC AND Paley Park Back Bay Fens, Boston Orange County Great Park Duisberg-Nord Fez River Reclaimation Toronto Waterfront Competition Victoria Park, Hong Kong Singapore Gardens by the Bay Competition Tiergarten, Berlin

LOCAL SITES Lumpini Park Chatujak Park Rama IX Royal Park Paragon Shopping Mall Plaza Benjasiri Park Queen Sirikit Royal Park BACC Plaza Santi Chai Prakarn Park Sanam Luang Saranrom Park

Case study investigastions should consider and graphically represent:

Site history, design intentions, size, ownership, funding, intended programmatic elements, alterations to site, infrastructural qualities, ephemerality of site, ecological function, adjacencies and context, thresholds, unbuilt proposals, and human scale sequences.

SITE SELECTION, ANALYSIS, AND RESEARCH :: Weeks 4-8

Research described above will continue until the midterm review.  During the initial research phase, the student will chose a site within greater Bangkok for intervention.  The sites listed below are recommended but additional sites of similar scale can be used with approval of the instructor.  It is recommended that site analysis work be done in groups of 2 or larger.  The ongoing research should clarify which site you choose and your programmatic intentions.


Khlong Toei
An active shipping port and site of large informal settlement along the Chao Praya River.  Issues with stormwater runoff, informal urbanism, and brownfield conditions. 


Nong Khahm
Bangkok municipal waste disposal landfill.  An ever changing landform fed from the waste disposal networks of the region.  Possibilities of material recycling and energy generation from biogas are known as well as issues with stormwater runoff pollution.


Chao Praya River
The edges of river are dotted with hotels, new high rise developments, and old dwellings.  Small parks and piers mark the edge with little cohesive connection or access to river edge.  Tourism and stormwater runoff issues are key issues at this site.  

INTERVENTION :: Weeks 8-16

With your site and programs clarified, you will begin your intervention with a master plan of the available site area.  Through desk crits and pinups, the reach of your interventions will be adjusted as per your argument.  From the macroscale gestures, you will focus on smaller portion(s) of your site for detailed investigation of representative issues(one hectare minimum at 1:1000 scale or smaller) and finally detailed resolution of interior and exterior spaces at 1:200 scale or smaller.  Given your formal education to this point, your interventions should challenge the conceived barriers between inside and outside, public and private.  Representation of sequences through your landscape can be done with more conventional tools of still images but also adaptations of HTML, Flash, and scripting software so that the experience can be offered quickly to a global audience.  Your proposal should use a balance between interior, exterior, and virtual spaces at proportions that are appropriate for your stance.  Physical study and presentation models are required from each student at 1:1000 or smaller.  Many specific requirements will be assigned to each student on an individual basis depending on the progress of the topics investigated.

_SUPPLIMENTAL INFORMATION

No experience is expected from students pertaining to plants, landscape issues, and large site design.  Lectures will be given during studio time throughout the semester by the instructor to provide general overviews on landscape architectural fundamentals to build on your already extensive training.  Workshops regarding other skills can be held at agreed upon times among students.  Tentative lecture/workshop topics include:

Landscape History, Theory, and Trends

Horticultural Systems/ Planting Strategies

Thailand Geology and Hydrology

Product and Material Flow Networks

Landscape Representation (Digital and Manual Modeling)

Landscape Construction Methods and Technologies

Parametric Modeling and Rendering (Rhino, Grasshopper, and VRay)

This course is not meant to focus on technical issues pertaining to landscape but rather expose you to problems architects collaborate with other professions to solve.  As the capstone to your career at INDA, this studio aims to raise awareness of the variety of issues and people that your skills as a designer can engage with.