HOTEL HOUSING IN KLONG TOEY BANGKOK, THAILAND

Abstract

Place The thesis borders between the new urban business teleport and a rehoused slum housing zone in Klong Toey, Thailand, where two radically different societies, cultures and economies occupy a fringe condition – at the emergence of two completely different forms of urbanism.

Proposition The contemporary Thai urban condition displays an ambivalence between modern capitalist enterprises and slum culture, which is an informal, invisible force. The proposition attempts to frame this social paradox through architecture. The natural ecology of the slums is situated within a contemporary framework, allowing exploration and experimentation at the edge of two viscerally differing types.

Programme Two distinct programmes are brought together, revealing to what extent they transgress into one another for mutual benefit. From this the opportunity arises to reverse the traditional roles of servant and served spaces, interrogating the notion of dominance.