Design
- Corridor / Balcony
- Tall Timber
- Pottery Museum
- ZeroWaste Center
- Inside Out
- Circular Urbanism
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Design
Professional
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Contact
Advisors: Rachaporn Chochuey, Surry Schlabs
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Yale School of Architecture, 2022 Fall
Learning from Bangkok
In contemporary housing, corridors and balconies typically serve as transitional spaces that straddle the line between public and private, urban and domestic. Despite their widespread presence, these areas are frequently underappreciated and minimized within the domestic layout. However, the informal use of corridors and balconies in Bangkok’s dense neighborhoods offers a contrasting perspective, challenging the conventional definitions of these spaces as monotonous elements of urban domestication.
Corridor
Beyond managing traffic and providing access to individual units, corridors could assume a multitude of roles. They functioned as kitchens, dining areas, living spaces, laundries, shops, storage spaces, and much more. Sometimes, these corridors transform into communal spaces, blurring the lines between the private and public spheres.
Balcony
Traditionally considered an extension of personal living areas, the balcony exists in a unique threshold state, neither entirely exterior nor interior, and can be adapted to serve various domestic needs. Within the homogenized housing layout, the balcony emerges as an expression of individualism amidst the metropolis.
2. Street Shared by Vendors, Tourists, and Traffic
Are the definitions of corridor and balcony confined solely to conventional domestic layouts?
In Bangkok, where high population density and space scarcity are pressing issues, the city's streets mirror the flexibility and informality found in domestic spaces. A typical example is a storefront on a public street, where the street serves as a connection to the diverse flow of urban life, with negotiable boundaries and a facade that can be reconfigured to accommodate various activities and commodities as needed.
Derived from observations made during a field trip to Bangkok, this project views the activities in the city's corridors and balconies as a critique of monochromatic housing design. It seeks to reexamine and redefine the roles of these spaces in both domestic and urban contexts through spatial reconfiguration, addressing their potential in proportions and elevations.
What if enclosed living spaces were minimized and shuffled with "balcony" and "corridor"?
Speculative Sections of domestic condition
Reimagine a Different Green Bridge
The Bangkok Green Bridge is an elevated walkway connecting two of the city’s most renowned parks, Lumpini and Benjakitti. Spanning 1.3 kilometers, the bridge was constructed in 1999 with the aim of facilitating uninterrupted pedestrian and cycling traffic between the parks. However, in practice, the bridge was imposed on the local community, disrupting its original fabric instead of integrating organically. As a result, the bridge is underutilized by both locals and visitors and has become a physical barrier that hinders social interaction and traffic connectivity.
Informal Addition:
The only convenience store along Green Bridge While the green bridge is largely unpopulated due to its isolated condition, a spontaneous addition—a convenience store built from an adjacent house—unexpectedly enlivens the space. This integration of unplanned development with existing infrastructure suggests the potential of informal activity in cultivating urban vibrancy.
Housing Integration
Building on speculative studies of balconies and corridors, the project envisions integrating 468 residential units along a 400-meter stretch of the green bridge, transforming the elevated walkway into a commercial street that also functions as balconies for residents. By expanding the width of the existing walkway, it is reimagined as a platform for street vendors to sell goods and food, while also accommodating domestic activities such as drying clothes and planting. Corridors between the residential units, set apart from the public street, provide communal spaces for domestic purposes like cooking, dining, and laundry. Unlike conventional housing developments, this urban intervention intends to present a scenario where the informality and spontaneity observed in Bangkok’s streetscape and dense communities can be embraced to rethink contemporary domesticity.
From a Pedestrian Bridge to a Shared Living Community
Modular Variations