decoding baan mankong- bangkok, thailand

DE-CODI-NG B A A N

M A N KO N G SPACES OF COMMUNIT Y FOR TRANSFORMATION

2 0 1 1 M S c B u i l d i n g a n d U r b a n D e s i g n i n D e v e l o p m e n tD e v e l o p m e n t P l a n n i n g U n i t | U n i v e r s i t y C o l l e g e L o n d o n

F i e l d T r i p R e p o r t

THE DHRINTEAM

KATJASTARC

AZZURRAMUZZONIGRO

FARIDAFARAG

SILVIACHI CERVERA

SERENALEHUA JARVIS

JOSUEROBLES CARABALLO

NOORAL GHAFARI

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK i

STUDENT BODYbuilding and urban design in development 2011

THE DHRINTEAM

MAHYAFATEMI

MAGDALENAASSANOWICZ

DHRIN ANANTAMONGKOLCHAI

AFRAAALI

McKENZIEO’NEILL

SEPIDEHAJISOLTANI

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK iii

ACRONYMS

ACCAACHR

ADBBM

BMABUDD

CCCCDCCDF

CODICPBDPUGHBIIED

LDFMWWANCDP

NESDBNGONHA

NRDCNULICO

RDFTAT

UCDOUCLUDP

Asian Coalition for Community ActionsAsian Coalition for Housing RightsAsian Development BankBaan MankongBangkok Metropolitan AdministrationBuilding and Urban Design in Development MScChang Chumchon ( Local Builders)City Development CommitteeCity Development FundCommunity Organization Development InstituteCrown Property BureauDevelopment Planning UnitGovernment Housing BankInternational Institute for Environment and DevelopmentLocal Development FoundationMetropolitan Waterworks AuthorityNational Committee on Decentralization Policy forProvincial and Local DevelopmentNational Economic and Social Development BoardNon-Governmental OrganizationNational Housing AuthorityNational Rural Development CommitteeNational Union of Low Income Community OrganizationRural Development FundTourism Authority of ThailandUrban Community Development OfficeUniversity College LondonUrban Development Planning MSc

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TABLE OF CONTENTSAcronymsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments

1.1 Executive Summary 1.1 รายงานฉบับย่อ 1.2 Vision 1.3 Introduction

2.0 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY 2.1 Definition of Transformation 2.2 Transformation/ Metamorphosis 2.3 Decoder 2.4 Methodology 3.0 FINDINGS / ANALYSIS 3.1 Pressures and Drivers of Change 3.2 Actors 3.3 The 6 Case Studies 3.4 Diagnosis 3.5 Conclusion

4.0 STRATEGIES 4.1 Vision 4.2 Strategies and Proposals 4.3 Synergic Connections Between Strategic Proposals 4.4 DECODING Strategic Proposals

5.0 REFLECTIONS 6.0 REFERENCES 6.1 List of Figures 6.2 Bibliography A.0 ANNEXES

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSLONDON

Presented de-CODI-ng would not take place without involvement of many significant personalities.

This learning experienced was facilitated and carried throughout by Development Planning Unit staff :

Camillo BoanoWilliam HunterAndrew WadeCaren LevyCassidy JohnsonVanesa Castan BrotoRuth McLeod

and all the DPU staff involved in the preparation of this trip.

BANGKOK

Through highly valuable hospitability of CODI and Somsook Boonyabancha we were exposed to practical knowledge-sharing.

Our transformation process would not be complete if not for people who eagerly helped us understand what Baan Mankong means:

Dr. Nattawut Usavagovitwong DPU Thai alumniNESDBGovernment Housing BankLPN developersNHAACHRACCA

Photo by Noor Al Ghafari

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With the support of communities and community leaders we had a chance to see Bangkok from a different perspective and get an overall picture of CODI’s actions:

Bang Khen communitiesBang Bua, Roon Mai Pattana Tai, Rumjai Patthana Nu, Ruamjai-Pattana Tai, Roy Krong, Ou Tid A Nu Son, Chai Klong Bang Bua, Baan Bang Khen, Sapan Mai, Warawi Wattana and Klong Lumpai.

Khlong Toey communitiesKoh Klang Klong Pra Ka Nhong, Sang Sun Phatana, Ruam Jai Pattana, Penang market, Rim Klong Pai Sing Tho, Rim Klong Wat Sa Parn and Lock 1,2,3

Pasi Chaloen communitiesKlong Lad Pha-Shi, Ra-sri, Sirapraya, Sirin and Friend, Witsampham, Wat Chan Ket 1 and Wat Chan Ket 3.

Rangsit municipalityRangsit Nimitmai, Rattana Pathum, Sang-san Nakorn Rangsit, Cha-reon Sin, Klong Nueng Pattana, Klong Sawaan, Sapann Keaw, Behind MaKro, and Lakhok Railway

Bang Pu municipalityKlong Mai Tai, Sam Haung,Nangnoal, Bangsamran, Srang Ton Eang and Klong Ta Kok

Rattanakosin IslandBaan Bart, Pom Mahakan, Wat Sumtonthammatan, Jakkaphatdephong, Wang Krom Phra Sommootamompan, Wat Saket, Wat Dusitaram, and Ta Wang..

Working with fellow Thai students strengthened our language skills and developed cultural knowledge.

Cooperation with the BUDD group C and students of UDP was a great proof of what an effective community means.

To all of you:SAWASDIKA and BIG KOPKUNKA !!!

สวัสดีคะ/ครับ และ ขอบคุณคะ/ครับ

viii INTRODUCTION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Aim

This report has three objectives:

First, it seeks to develop an analytical perspective embedded in a broader theoretical discourse of the social and the spatial which would help with understanding transformative processes in the context of the urban, formulate a vision of a just transformation and enable a critical evaluation of findings and proposals.

Second, it aims to assess the transformative potential of The Baan Mankong Secure Housing Programme as envisioned and implemented by The Community Organizations Development Institute in the wider context of the city of Bangkok, Thailand.

Third, based on a contextualized diagnosis of the challenges and opportunities of the Programme, it intends to design strategic interventions meant to strengthen its transformative potential in order to reach the envisioned goal of transformation as social justice.

Findings

The identification of relevant actors at different scales along with the insights about major pressures and drivers of change provided by field-work in six sites, has exposed the following issues as being the most influential for the transformative potential of the Programme:

1. The Programme is successful in mobilizing and empowering communities but the capacity to negotiate is constrained

2. The pressures of rapid urban growth pose a significant challenge for land accessibility and affordability, which hinders the ability of communities to participate in the Programme3. The Programme fosters and builds on networking and knowledge sharing, however the process appears to be uneven

4. Even though the Programme’s success lies in collective problem solving this is not fully translated into design responses

Based on extensive preparatory research and informed by data collection during the fieldwork in Bangkok, Thailand, this report represents a processed and synthesized outcome of a four months long learning process, undertaken by the students of Building and Urban Design in Development (BUDD) at University College London (2010/2011) in collaboration with colleagues from the Urban Development Planning and under supervision of the Development Planning Unit academic staff.

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK ix EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Recommendations

Informed by the analytical diagnosis four strategies with detailed proposal have been designed:

1. Increase land accessibility and affordability through densification, intensification and higher productivity of land

2. Strengthen networks and capitalize design solutions through a knowledge sharing process by creating a Skills Bank, Community Resource Nodes and Channels of Effective Communication

3. Decrease vulnerability of communities by expanding accessibility to alternative funding like Booster Funds.

4. Develop alliances among the actors to optimize the capacity of negotiation based on the redefinition of roles and areas of responsibility.

The added value of the individual proposals lies in the potential of not only complementary but synergic reinforcements between them. As such, these connections can multiply strategic effects over time and scale.

Conclusions

The set of actions meant to re-shape financial policies, land and knowledge management prove to be successful to some extent, but the assessment of the strategic proposals shows that they can only reach their full transformative potential if supported by the active involvement of the usually marginalized in the decision making process. Building on CODI’s advocacy for people lead transformative processes, it is recognized that the ultimate result of the demand driven paradigm shift is appropriation of political space that enables people to participate in the shaping of city-wide urban transformations.

x INTRODUCTION รายงานฉบับย่อ

1.1 รายงานฉบับย่อรายงานฉบับนี้อ้างอิงมาจากการที่ได้ทำาการศึกษาอย่างครอบคลุม และได้รับการยืนยันจากการวิเคราะห์ข้อมูล ที่ได้จากงานภาคสนามในกรุงเทพฯ เพื่อแสดงให้เห็นถึงขั้นตอนการดำาเนินงานและผลลัพธ์จากการสังเคราะห์ ภายในระยะเวลาสี่เดือนที่ทำาการศึกษา รายงานฉบับนี้จัดทำาโดย นักศึกษาภาควิชาการออกแบบอาคารและเมืองเพื่อการพัฒนา มหาวิทยาลัย University College London ประจำาปีการศึกษา 2010/2011 โดยร่วมมือกับนักศึกษาภาควิชาการวางแผนเมืองเพื่อการพัฒนา ภายใต้การควบคุมของอาจารย์และทีมงานจาก กองการวางแผนเพื่อการพัฒนา

วัตถุประสงค์

วัตถุประสงค์ของรายงานฉบับนี้ประกอบไปด้วย 3 องค์ประกอบหลัก- เพื่อพัฒนาและวิเคราะห์มุมมองที่เป็นส่วนหนึ่งของทฤษฎีที่เกี่ยวกับสังคมและที่ว่าง เพื่อที่จะได้ช่วยให้เข้าใจถึงขั้นตอนการปฏิรูปภายใต้บริบทของเมือง ในขณะเดียวกันก็ สังเคราะห์ออกมาเป็นวิสัยทัศน์ของการปฏิรูปอย่างยุติธรรม และทำาการประเมินองค์ความรู้เพื่อนำาไปสู่ข้อเสนอแนะสำาหรับโครงการ- เพื่อประเมินศักยภาพทางการปฎิรูปของโครงการบ้านมั่นคง ที่ได้รับการพัฒนาและดำาเนินการโดยสถาบันพัฒนาองค์กรชุมชน ในบริบทที่ซับซ้อนของกรุงเทพมหานคร- อ้างอิงจากการวิเคราะห์ ถึงความท้าทายและศักยภาพของโครงการโดยคำานึงถึงบริบทและสภาพแวดล้อม รายงานนี้ประสงค์ที่จะออกแบบกลยุทธ์ในการดำาเนินการ ที่จะสามารถ เสริมความแข็งแกร่งให้กับ ศักยภาพในการปฏิรูปของโครงการ เพื่อนำาไปสู่เป้าหมายที่วางไว้ของการพัฒนาอย่างมีความยุติธรรมทางสังคม

ผลจากการศึกษา

การศึกษาและแยกแยะข้อมูลที่เกี่ยวข้องเช่น องค์กรและผู้ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับโครงการในแต่ละระดับ รวมไปถึงข้อมูลเชิงลึกเกี่ยวกับแรงกดดันและแรงขับดันที่ก่อให้เกิดการเปลี่ยนแปลง ที่ได้จากการทำางานภาคสนามในหกพื้นที่ ได้นำาไปสู่ประเด็นต่างๆต่อไปนี้ซึ่งเป็นส่วนสำาคัญที่ส่งผลกระทบต่อศักยภาพในการปฏิรูปของโครงการ1. โครงการมีความสำาเร็จในการผลักดันให้เกิดการขับเคลื่อนของชุมชนและภาคี แต่ศักยภาพในการต่อรองยังถูกจำากัดอยู่2. การขยายของเมืองก่อให้เกิดแรงกดดันไปสู่ความสามารถในการครอบครองที่ดิน ซึ่งสร้างข้อจำากัดในการเข้าร่วมโครงการบ้านมั่นคงของชุมชน3. ภาคีและการกระจายความรู้ถึอว่าเป็นโครงสร้างหลักของโครงการ แต่ว่าขั้นตอนดำาเนินการยังคงไม่ทั่วถึงและไม่เสมอกันในแต่ละพื้นที่4. ถึงแม้ว่าความสำาเร็จของโครงการเกิดจากการมีส่วนร่วมในการแก้ปัญหา แต่ว่าประเด็นนี้ยังไม่ได้รับการ ส่งเสริมอย่างเต็มที่ในด้านการออกแบบเพื่อตอบสนองต่อปัญหา

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK xi รายงานฉบับย่อ

ข้อเสนอแนะ

กลยุทธ์และรายละเอียดของแผนการดำาเนินงานได้รับการออกแบบจากการวิเคราะห์ข้อมูลเชิงลึก1. เพิ่มศักยภาพในการครอบครองที่ดินด้วยการเพิ่มความหนาแน่นทั้งทางนอนและทางตั้ง และการเพิ่มประสิทธิภาพของที่ดิน2. เพิ่มความแข็งแกร่งของภาคีและการออกแบบเพื่อเพิ่มผลประโยชน์ ผ่านขั้นตอนการกระจายและแลกเปลี่ยนความรู้ ด้วยการสร้าง ธนาคารทักษะความสามารถ ศูนย์รวมทรัพยากรชุมชนและ ช่องทางสำาหรับการสื่อสารอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ3. ลดความเสี่ยงโดยการขยายช่องทางในการเข้าถึงเงินทุนผ่าน โครงการกระตุ้นกองทุน4. เสริมสร้างพันธมิตรระหว่างผู้เกี่ยวข้องเพื่อเพิ่มศักยภาพในการต่อรอง บนพื่นฐานของการ นิยามบทบาทและหน้าที่รับผิดชอบของแต่ละฝ่ายใหม่แผนดำาเนินงานแต่ละแผนที่ทำาการนำาเสนอภายในรายงานฉบับนี้ วางอยู่บนความเป็นไปได้ที่ไม่เพียงแต่ละแผนจะสามารถครอบคลุมประเด็นต่างๆ แต่ละแผนยังสามารถเติมเต็มและส่งเสริมกันและกัน ซึ่งจะช่วยขยายศักยภาพของกลยุทธิ์ให่้ก้าวผ่านระดับและช่วงเวลาต่างๆได้

สรุป

แผนการดำาเนินการเหล่านี้ถูกกำาหนดขึ้นเพื่อเปลี่ยนรูปแบบของนโยบายทางการเงิน ที่ดิน และการจัดการข้อมูล ซึ่งได้รับการพิสูจน์ในระดับหนึ่งแล้วว่าประสบความสำาเร็จ แต่จากการประเมินชี้ให้เห็นว่า กลยุทธิ์จะสามารถถูกใช้ได้เต็มประสิทธิภาพก็ต่อเมื่อได้รับการสนับสนุนจากฝ่ายที่เป็นผู้ออกนโยบาย กลยุทธิ์เหล่านี้ถูกวางขึ้นจากแนวคิดของสถาบันพัฒนาองค์กรชุมชน บนพื้นฐานที่เชื่อว่าผลลัพธ์ที่ยิ่งใหญ่ของ มุมมองที่เปลี่ยนไปสู่การขับเคลื่อนจากอุปสงค์(ชุมชน) นั้นเหมาะสมกับพื้นที่ทางนโยบายที่ให้โอกาสประชาชนในการมีส่วนร่วมในการปฏิรูปเมือง

xii INTRODUCTION

1.2 VISION“People Become The Solution

People Are The Scale” -Somsook Boonyabancha

VISION

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK xiii VISION

xiv INTRODUCTION

1.3 INTRODUCTIONBangkok is not necessarily a place where ‘jay yen yen’ (Thai phrase meaning: keep calm) is easily applicable. Rather it is a city that never sleeps and constantly has a lot to offer. Streets full of vendors, walls flashing with colours, cables hanging over one’s head – all these makes a promise of connectivity and efficiency. This dream is carried along with the construction of flyovers- overshadowing the city with their monstrous presence they do not necessarily fulfill their purpose. It seems that always- smiling Bangkok citizens did not allow themselves to frown thinking about the possibility and consequences of the urban sprawl.

Launched in 2003 “Baan Mankong Collective Housing Program” carried out by CODI (Community Organizations Development Institute- a public organization under the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security) has a certain role within the metropolis: it supports process of ‘developing long-term, comprehensive solutions to problems of land and housing’ affecting the poorest within the vibrant urban structure of Bangkok (CODI website).

CODI’s methods evolve primarily around channelling governmental funds so that communities (being a part of the program), will

have a chance to carry out necessary housing improvements along with other issues, such as: tenure security, environment, and basic access to services. This complex process requires building many bridges (not necessarily flyovers) between the communities and other actors involved (local authorities, NGOs, Academia and the national level of politics).

Baan Mankong ideals go further than just a housing programme: it is about the power of the people being a part of the collective exercising freely their rights.

In order to assess the Baan Mankong Programme, an intensive exploration of the city of Bangkok was undertaken by the DPU BUDD and UDP MSc students. Fieldwork was carried out in Bang Khen, Khlong Toey, Pasi Chaloen, Rangsit, Bang Pu and Rattanakosin Island, all of which are included in the BM programme. Furthermore, this helped envisage the reality of the conditions within these communities before, during and after the programme.

Figures below and on the following pages are illustrating the final presentations held at CODI`s headquarters in Bangkok the 22nd May 2011.

Figure 1.2 Community mobilisation issue based presentation Figure 1.3 Community leaders participating in the feedback

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dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK xv

Figure 1.5 Rangsit site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students

Figure 1.6 Bang Pu site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students

Figure 1.7 Pasi Chaloen site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students

Figure 1.8 Rattanakosin Island site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students

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Figure 1.4 Somsook Boonyabancha participation in our presentations in Bangkok

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THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

“NULICO puts into practice the Baan Mankong ideals of “information exchange” and “learning by doing”

-Diane Archer

THEORETICALFRAMEWORK AND

METHODOLOGY Photo by Silvia Chi

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 17

THEORETICALFRAMEWORK AND

METHODOLOGY

18 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

2.0 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

2.1 DEFINITION OF TRANSFORMATIONAfter being exposed to Bangkok we can freely say that it is an evolving, constantly moving organism that undergoes uncontrolled processes of various metamorphosis.

Having said that, our interest was the condition of the poorest citizens living in this particular city and being a part of the Baan Maankong project carried out by CODI.

The task of this theoretical framework is to establish a certain understanding of socio-spatial ‘transformation’ and it’s criteria within an urban context. This kind of framework should be used as a tool to see the potential ‘gaps’ for additional interventions that would bring about a visible level of improvement (for us, these will be the strategies including the vision).

It has to be underlined that our ‘transformation’ definition had undergone many changes and various modifications. It was understood that it has to meet three characteristics: time/scale and space that will combine different components and criteria.

This discourse is embedded within an analytical thought that will enrich further discussion over potential interventions.

2.2 TRANSFORMATION/ METAMORPHOSIS

TRANSFORMATION

It was quickly understood that transformation is an ongoing (infinite?) process, with a possibly utopian goal. Instead of meeting only the spatial criteria (Lefebvrian transformation definition as “liberation time- space” understood as reappropriation of space to fight the capitalist false consciousness) or the social criteria (Rawlsian distributive “ A Theory of Justice” talking about rights and freedoms chosen by individuals under the condition of ‘veil of ignorance’), it was grasped that transformation definition requires a combination of both: socio-spatial components in the context of time.

Result: Transformation (metamorphosis) is a long term process (time) of social and spatial improvement.

This supposedly simple definition had to involve certain conditions. After careful assessment Transformation was additionally elaborated as an action of:

re-designing the structure of power relations by applying a knowledge-sharing scheme that would ensure greatest possible degree of social justice.

This discourse was led by the notion of freedom (specifically: freedom of choice) and ways to achieve its highest possible degree in the communal context within the structure of social justice (can individual freedom be maximized in such conditions?). This thought links directly with the theory of ‘Development as Freedom’ introduced by Amartya Sen what reminds us Somsook Boonyabencha’s work, who speaks of Development being Freedom (a pro-active approach).

“Development requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of repressive states”. (Sen, 3)

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 19 TRANSFORMATION

TRANSFORMATION/METAMORPHOSIS

POWER RELATIONS

IS A LONG TERM PROCESS OF SOCIAL AND SPATIAL IMPROVEMENT. IT MEANS THE RE-DESIGN OF THE STRUCTURE OF POWER RELATIONS

BY APPLYING A KNOWLEDGE-SHARING SCHEME THAT WOULD ENSURE GREATEST POSSIBLE DEGREE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE.

SOCIAL JUSTICEENSURE EQUAL ACCESS TO RIGHTS AND

LIBERTIES WITHIN A DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY ATTEMPTING TO ACHEIVE

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM.

KNOWLEDGE SHARINGRE-DESIGN POWER RELATIONS

THROUGH LEVERAGINGENGAGEMENT OF STAKEHOLDERS

IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS.

ENGAGE STAKEHOLDERS IN EFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE -SHARING

SCHEME.

POWER RELATIONS | Re-design power relations through leveraging engagement of stakeholders in decision making process

KNOWLEDGE SHARING | Engage all stakeholders in efficient knowledge-sharing scheme

SOCIAL JUSTICE | Ensure equal access to rights and liberties within a democratic community attempting to achieve highest individual freedom

Figure 2.1 Envisioning the transformation definition


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L JUSTICE

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COOPERATIVE INTELLIGENCE

GENERATION BRIDGE

PRECEDENT SETTING

PARTICIPATIVE DESIGN

ENFORCING NEGOTIATION

COMMUNITITY NETWORKING

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SOCIAL INCLUSION

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OF PROGRAM/POLICIES TO NEEDS

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EQUALITY OF ENGAGEMENT OF ALL PARTICIPANTS

ROLE OF COMMUNITY ARCHITECT AS DESIGN ENABLER

NEEDS HEARD/LIMITS AKNOWLEDGED

CREATE SPACE FOR NEGOTIATION

CROSS CUTTING HORIZONTALLY & VERTICALLY

ENGAGEM. OF PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

SPREADING KNOWLEDGE ACROSS SCALES

SCALING -UP

Figure 2.2 Criteria and Indicators for our definition of transformation

TRANSFORMATION


How do we then envision the transformation definition?

POWER RELATIONS | Re-design power relations through leverage engagement of stakeholders in decision making process+KNOWLEDGE SHARING | Engage all stakeholders in efficient knowledge-sharing scheme.=SOCIAL JUSTICE | Ensure equal access to rights and liberties within a democratic community attempting to achieve highest individual freedom.

It was clear from the very beginning that the two components of: power relations and knowledge-sharing are absolutely crucial to reach the desirable level of social justice (the ultimate goal of transformation/social development). They also go hand in hand with the Foucaldian thought of “Space, Knowledge and Power” interlinkage: “Space is fundamental in any form of communal life, space is fundamental in any exercise of power.” ( Foucault, . 254). These two notions: power and knowledge within spatial context are inseparable, therefore, improving one means improving the other ones as well. To reach the highest desirable outcome all of them should be at the same level (can they ever be?).

Balancing components will hopefully lead to enhancing the importance of freedom in Sen’s understanding achieving the ultimate goal seen as Social Justice: “(..) exercise of people’s freedoms, through liberty to participate in social choice and in making of public decisions that impel the progress of (…) opportunities” (Sen, p. 5). Development is precisely what we would like to see within the transformation definition: shifting human condition so that the highest possible freedom (social justice in practice) through spatial and social components within a societal structure can be obtained.

It should take place within a structure of community seen as a web of beings: “The ‘networked individual’ is part of a continuum, [therefore] a web of beings” (Manickam). Individuals should have an opportunity to enjoy their freedom through exercising their capabilities/capacities and knowledge within a structure of democratic community.

This notion could possibly target the condition of ‘democracy to come’ (sort of a ‘promise’) advocated by Derrida: “ (…) idea of a democracy: equality, freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press - all these things are inscribed as promises within democracy. That is why it is a more historical concept of the political - it’s the only concept of a regime or a political organization in which history, that is the endless process of improvement and perfectibility, is inscribed in the concept. (…) that is why I call it ‘to-come’” (Derrida, Politics of Friendship, p. 5).

Such a discourse can be observed vividly within the current transformation of Thailand’s political structure struggling to establish a set of applicable norms and codes. Hopefully, the broader implication of the ‘transformation’ definition will bring a stronger meaning to the ‘democratic’ system that Thailand continuously works on.

TRANSFORMATION


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DECODER: an analytical tool toassess transformational processess

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2.3 DECODERAs a methodological tool to portray and assess transformational processes, we propose a hexagonal diagram, the Decoder, with three subjects of investigation.

The first axis represents the interplay between the two components defined as prerequisites for social justice, power relations re-design and knowledge sharing, to be measured through appropriate criteria (participatory design, transparency of stakeholders, community networking, enabled negotiation and generation bridge, precedent setting, cooperative intelligence accordingly).

The second one shows the extent of social and spatial outcomes of investigated processes in the socio-spatial continuum based on a qualitative comparison.

And the last one expresses the magnitude of change across scale (community, district, city/metropolis) and the estimated time needed to achieve that change as well as the on-going nature of it (short, mid and long term).

In order to assess transformational processes, the impacts of their outcomes are to be analyzed along all of the three axis. According to the proposed definition of transformation, social justice is achieved when all criteria are met and social as well as spatial improvements achieved across time and scale.

Figure 2.3 DECODER: a methodological tool to assess transformational processes

DECODER


Figure 2.4 An example of how the DECODER works

Figure 2.5 Ideal situation: transformational processes result in social justice

DECODER

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2.4 METHODOLOGYDuring a two- week field trip in Bangkok we had an opportunity to visit 6 distinct sites involved in the Baan Mankong programme.

Our methods of gathering important information varied from site to site ( site visits being one of the methods). Through this different modes of data collect, we were able to triangulate the information in order to cross-check the findings in the sites.

METHODS

1. Site visits2. Interviews (Inhabitants & Institutional Actors): structured/ unstructured/ semi-structures/ informal 3. Site and house mapping4.Visual recording of the sites (photos, videos)5. Participative workshops6. Final presentations to the communities.

SITE VISITS

Visited 6 sites ( number of communities visited within the site): • Bang Khen (8)• Klong Toey (8)• Phasi Chaleon (6)• Bang Pu (7)• Rattanakosin Island (8)• Rangsit (8) INTERVIEWS

Common system of retrieving data was a simple interview that involved an interviewer/ interviewee(s) and a translator(s). Interviews consisted of a set of simple questions helping to get the overall picture of the assessed issue:

• Interviewed people were inhabitants of the communities occasionally accompanied by institutional actors. Average number of (informal) interviews per site: 10-15

• Sites where interviews with local authorities took place: Klong Toey, Phasi Chaleon, Bang Pu, Rangsit (4 interviews)

• Type of the interview that occurred the most: semi-structured (48 interviews) with community leaders, community comitees, Crown Property Bureau staff, NULICO staff.

SITE AND HOUSE MAPPING

Site and house mapping (drawings/ sketches) were produced to help in understanding the spatial components of the sites and be a part of necessary documentation.

VISUAL RECORDING OF THE SITES

The whole experienced was accompanied by a series of photos and occasionally videos capturing what was visible within the sites.

PARTICIPATIVE WORKSHOPS

Sites where PARTICIPATIVE WORKSHOPS occurred: Bang Pu (1 workshop)Sites where a different type of WORKSHOP took place: Rangsit (1 workshop)

FINAL PRESENTATIONS

The final presentations to the communities within the week of the fieldwork as well as the final presentations held at CODI`s headquarters at the end of the fieldtrip were essential for assessing whether the initial impressions and assumptions met the reality and communities expectations/ common knowledge. The feedback of these final presentations were core in reframing and adjusting the strategies that we tested in the field.

The recording of the fieldwork is elaborated in a more extended way in the annex of this report.

METHODOLOGY


Figure 2.6 Visual recording of the sites Figure 2.7 Site visits

Figure 2.8 Interviews Figure 2.9 Final presentation with the communities

Photo by Silvia Chi

Photo by Tareq Razouk

Photo by Silvia Chi Photo by Kade Wanida

METHODOLOGY

ANALYSIS

‘There is a gap between the people and the system, let the people fill the gap’

-Somsook Boonyabancha

Photo by McKenzie O`Neill


ANALYSIS

28 ANALYSIS

3.0 ANALYSIS3.1 PRESSURES AND DRIVERS OF CHANGE As a major hub in South East Asia with a vision of becoming a global city, Bangkok is facing increasing pressures on land. Gentrifying forces in the central historical, commercial and residential districts have led to an increase in real estate value. These rapid urban development pressures pose great challenges for allocating affordable land and securing land tenure for the urban poor.

At present, many communities are being excluded from the goods and services of the city and are often forced to look for housing solutions that are spatially and economically disconnected from the urban centre. Migration and squatting have become emerging forces within Bangkok.

At the same time, megaprojects including transport expansions have greatly influenced the city’s form and the sprawling conditions at the

urban periphery, attempting to address the city’s symptoms of high-density vehicular travel and long commute times.

As a country, Thailand is experiencing a time of great internal rift. The country’s hub, Bangkok is the setting for these conflicts and therefore one of the focal points of our investigation. The highly controversial political scenario in Bangkok has had a large influence and impact over the BM Programme’s activities and the roles of several actors. More importantly, it is vital to note that BM is a government funded programme, and it is somewhat vulnerable to being affected by frequent power shifts in the political arena.

Several of the dominant transformative actors have experienced a greater position of power due to the nature of this conflict, increasing CODI’s vulnerability but also its strength in overcoming these struggles. In the future of the Programme, this will continue to be the greatest influence that underlies all relationships between actors.

PRESSURES AND DRIVERS OF CHANGE

Figure 3.1 Megainfrastructure and housing in Koh Klang Klong Pra Ka NhongPhoto by Silvia Chi

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 29 PRESSURES AND DRIVERS OF CHANGE

Figure 3.4 Coexistence of slums, mega projects and new developments in Klong Toey

Figure 3.2 Drivers of change and pressures on Bangkok

Figure 3.3 Touristic activities in the central area of Bangkok, Rattanakosin Island

Photo by Silvia Chi Photo by Silvia Chi

30 ANALYSIS

3.2 ACTORSWhile identifying the key actors involved in the process of transformation, we recognize how several actors were involved on different levels, with multiple and varying roles. In order to represent the multi-scalar processes involved between actors we have conceptualized the BM Programme as a “machine.” We have represented these complex relations through a diagram — the poles represent the multi-scalar actors, the size of the gears relate to the power or dominance of each actor, and the “belts” between each actor explain the quality of their relations and how closely they are working together.

This “machine” has become a critical tool for our analysis: it has helped us to diagnose actor relations and how they have evolved over time, as well as to understand how these relationships have changed or were clarified through our experiences in the field (The differences between the figure 3.6 and 3.7 point out these changes).

As illustrated through the diagram, CODI is posited at the centre because it is a dominant actor in distributing funds to communities and one that has remained before and after the fieldwork experience. However, CODI’s level of involvement at the community scale is less visible than originally anticipated.

Within the diagram we have illustrated how NULICO has become the strong-hold of the Programme in coordinating and organizing community activities, and acting as the emergency generator of funding and community driven processes.

COOPERATIVE

Several actors have been allies of the Programme. One important example is ACHR, as an organization they share similar strategies to the initiatives of CODI, but address the larger scale. The programmes of knowledge sharing and regional funding opportunities of large-scale ACHR projects have had an immense positive impact on the BM Programme. This has been particularly important on the community level.

ACTORS

Figure 3.5 Actor timeline Figure 3.6 Actor mapping before Bangkok

1950s1960s

1980s

1990s

2000s

The Royal Patronageof H.M. the King

Thailand Rural Recon-structurction Movement

PREMNESDBMisintry of

Finance

Misintry of Interior

Misintry of SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTand HUMAN SECURITY

National Rural Development Committee (NRDC)

Local Development Foundation (LDF)

Urban Development Community Office (UCDO)

Urban Development Community Office (UCDO)

Rural Development Fund(RDF)

Local Develpoment Assistance Program (LDAP)

Community DevelopmentDepartment

National Committee on Decentral-ization Policy for Provincial and Local Development (NCDP)

National Housing Authority (NHA)

Government Housing Bank1970s

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 31 ACTORS

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Figure 3.7 Actor mapping after Bangkok

32 ANALYSIS ACTORS

Equally, NULICO has had a very strong presence in supporting CODI activities, many times filling the voids where CODI cannot act. As NULICO is born out of and imbedded within the communities, their involvement at the community level is strongest and this was made evident in our field visits to many of the communities.

CODI also has a good relationship among local and larger university networks. This relationship is particularly important to the design process of CODI projects. For example, the role of Universities in the design and capacity building could be beneficial for both parties and should be further explored by CODI, especially in the case of architects and planners.

NEUTRAL

Several actors assumed to have a much stronger relationship with the Programme as their large roles and responsibilities that have been undertaken. However, many of these relationships do not possess the synergies that we originally assumed in our analysis. This is specific in the position of the GHB, NHA and NESDB with CODI. While we recognize there is no conflict between these actors, their relationships have been out of necessity and under pressure to support CODI due to their similar ‘positions’ within the government structures. In this sense, the national scale of actors is primarily made up by these existing support roles.

CONFLICTING

There is one relationship within all scenarios that is characterized by high tension: that is between the landlord and the communities. While many times the relations are positive and cooperative, the nature of these relations are not immediate or assumed. The role of the landlord is the most dynamic of any actor as it ranges from Central Government, Local Municipality, private entities, Royal Family lands or religious institutions. Further, the nature of the actor also lends itself to be dynamic in scale in the “machine.” This connection is therefore the most contingent to communities to enter the Programme as Upgrading or Reblocking strategies require tenure agreements and the greatest potential indicator for the level of transformation collectively sought by the community. The case of CPB is

exceptional, in its positive and proactive role in advocating communities to join the programme and establishing leasing agreements, serving the interest of both parties.

Another highly dynamic relationship is one between the Municipality and the community. Several communities had a cooperative relationship with members of the Municipality, or where NULICO was also collaborating with the Municipality. However, this relationship is one that is constantly evolving, and often times the landowner is highly disruptive of local relations. In many cases such as Klong Toey, this has made it especially difficult for communities to establish long-term collaborative relations with the local Municipality. Further, the Municipality often perceives communities as unorganized or limited in ability and have disregarded the needs of the community for the incentives of the landlord. As communities continue demonstrating their organization through their upgrading strategies this is shifting the perception, however the impact of the landord can still be highly problematic.

FINANCIAL

CODI’s provision of funding has two-fold limitations. One is the amount of savings a community is able to acquire in order to enter the programme. The other limitation is the large fiscal cut that the government agencies have endured. As a result, CODI’s ability to fully support as many communities as possible is not always sufficient. The reductions in funding impact the very idea of transformation, potentially increasing vulnerabilities within communities and limiting their ability to effectively respond.

NULICO has been helping to establish City/Community Development Funds at the municipal level. These funds act as a revolving fund for communities to access, and essentially are an “emergency resource generator” to act without CODI.

Other important financial relationships that communities rely on include donations from ACHR to CODI and to CDFs that have some impact in the community level. Additionally, the relationship between GHB and CODI was established as a result of the fiscal crisis, where GHB purchased several community loans from

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 33 ACTORS

CODI. This is the primary aim of the relationship, and is one in which CODI and communities mostly benefit.

POWER

At the level of communities, the network of NULICO is perhaps the most empowered of any agency in the Programme. This actor has the most flexibility of roles and responsibilities, ability to mobilize and influence the community directly. In fact, this actor acts primarily to organize community processes. It is important to clarify that CODI lacks any major role at this scale, and highly relies on community self-organization.

While there are tense relationships in the overall actor map, there are also several strained relationships that are not characteristic of being in direct conflict to the program’s efficiency but rather to the extent of leveraging transformation. Specifically, important is the role of the Community Architect. At present, this actor has not been empowered by communities or fully integrated in CODI’s agenda of design.

Therefore, the community architect actor has a stronger role in consulting community relations rather than actually being a part of the design and building process. The relationship between actors has disempowered the role of the Community Architect more than any within the Programme.

The City Development Committee is a forum composed of members from communities, NULICO, CODI, Academia, and Municipality. On site, the presence of this team was nearly imperceptible. However, while this committee lacks power of decision-making over issues of development, it is an existing space for negotiation and discussion within the Programme.

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Figure 3.8 Main actors in the national level

Figure 3.9 Main actors in the metropolitan level

Figure 3.10 Main actors in the district level

Figure 3.11 Main actors in the community level

34 ANALYSIS SITES

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 35 SITES

3.3 THE 6 CASE STUDIES

As part of a collective of urban practitioners, our experiences in the field gave us the opportunity to connect our theoretical analysis with field-based research.

During our experiences in the field we refined our broad understandings of transformation to centre around four highly specific approaches: Partnerships and infrastructure, Land and Housing, Finance, and Community Mobilization and Capabilities.

The aim of this approach was to filter and cluster the dense information gathered across the six sites and shape it into a synthesized analysis and proposal. Further, we sought to highlight the opportunities, concerns, and threats across sites respectively identifying recurrent and resonant themes throughout.

Figure 3.12 Location of the 6 sites within Bangkok region

Rattanakosin Island

Bang Pu

Ban Khen

Pasi Chaleon

Rangsit

Khlong Toey

36 ANALYSIS

3.3.1 BANG KHEN

Bang Khen District known as the largest district in Bangkok is located at the centre of the city within proximity of the main highways, infrastructure and transport arteries.

The communities in Bang Khen District have a strong spatial bond with the canal. Since its one of the pilot projects of BM Programme there is with a well-grounded community organization and mobilizationand also, there is a the lack of influence from the municipality and local authority. It was here that they pioneered the first CDF in Bangkok setting precedent for self sufficient and financial independence from CODI whilst mitigating the repercussion of any future financial instability.

SITES

Figure 3.13 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Bang Khen district

Figure 3.14 View from Bang Bua canal

Communities visited

Major roads

Photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani

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Figure 3.15 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Bang Khen district

•Although Bang Khen has relatively strong partnerships with the district and local authority there still appears to be problems in terms of division of equal roles and relations between local authority, municipality and the communities. •Partnership with Action Aid for financially supporting the Bang Bua nursery. (only NGO)•Uneven knowledge among the communities can create misunder-standing and fragment partner-ships as one example indicates a community member employee of government opposing to BM project due to not being aware of the project being supported by government. •Uneven awareness of resources and information available in other districts due to scarcity of networks and partnerships.

•Originating the first CDF only for housing costs to constitute a self sufficiency and less dependency acting as a support to CODI funds.•There are welfare funds available which provides for elderly care, support for families facing difficul-ties with loan payments, acts as security for irregular incomes of community members.•Philanthropy: when government funding doesn’t come through, communities/individuals donate money to neighboring communi-ties. (e.g. bridge in Som Chai’s community)•CDF has scaling up limitations which self-sufficiency is a motiva-tion, but the fund is inextricably linked to CODI for continuity. •CDF is also being used to bypass funding from CODI (e.g. Ruamjai Patthana Klang, where community does not have collective land title)•Timing is another factor that associates with communities choosing CDF vs. CODI depend-ing on how much money CODI has at any given time. (e.g. acquir-ing more from CODI in 2008, immediately following the successful protests)

•While observing the overall picture design aspects have been neglected.•The communities with partnership with municipality agreed on the New Building Codes for govern-mental projects which gives more room for maneuver in terms of design aspects and planning.•‘Baan Bang Khen’ is an example of more developed design aspects using outside architects to design mid-rise apartments and also currently maximizing their area. (in line with growth of the city)•Since 2007 there has been no visit from CODI architect which shows a disconnect between Codi architect and community.•According to design standards the fact that the communities are not adapting to changing city landscape.•Longevity of the buildings, quality of construction and design may not be desirable in the future.•There has been a definite loss of public spaces after the BM project which requires more design feature.

•Establishing the local community builders (CCC - 100 local construction labor in 5 teams )which construct the BM projects in the district as well as broader boundaries and setting up ‘Home Service Centre’ which where looking to set up a call centre in future.•Builders network – build knowl-edge by implementing the first phase and teaching the locals as a process for knowledge transfer. •Their capacity as a collective community to change New building codes and be the catalyst for further policy changes in government. •Using protest as a means of communication which can be related to need of capacity for negotiation. •Long time to get administration funds and depends if you have good relations with government.•Canal cleaning every month with borrowing the BMA boats which can on the contrary indicate the imbalance sharing of relationship and roles resulted in the communi-ties acting like a municipality which might result with over burden of work and an isolated city perception.

Partnerships and Infrastructure Finance Land and Housing Capabilities

38 ANALYSIS

3.3.2 KHLONG TOEY

A site full of tensions, Khlong Toey district has one of the largest and most dense slums in Bangkok, adjacent to the nation’s main port.

Decades of eviction struggles have resulted from clashes with the Port Authority, as the main landowner of slums settlements and major infrastructure projects that are planned for here.

The high pressure on the land results not only from these external forces but also the increasing demand for housing. For the past 30 years this site has been a major entry point for migrants to the city, due to its proximity to the port and large opportunities for work. These pressures, both internal and external have resulted in multiple conflicts and a lack of cohesion across communities.

SITES

Communities visited

Port

Figure 3.16 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Khlong Toey district

Figure 3.17 Khlong Toey: spatially fragmentated

Major roads


•There are weaker network linkages between non-Baan Mankong communities,and with communities beyond the district.•One of the best communities we visited in terms of infrastructure and housing improvements was on the site of Crown Property Land, as there was an alliance with Baan Mankong.•Strong presence of local, national and international NGOs, which are providing support to communities that Baan Mankong cannot reach•They have little power to negoti-ate with or influence the Port Consequently, have weak linkages to communities on Port land.

•The Port and the Market also serve as important sources of livelihood for communities in the district.

•43 registered communities squeezed in between this, some-times on undesirable land (e.g. underneath expressways), other times on land targeted for devel-opment.•Baan Mankong does not address communities that are living in the most precarious situation, in areas without secure tenure, under the threat of eviction.•Or communities that are socially and spatially fragmented, included migrants.•Families are afraid of investing in their homes, because they don’t know when they might need to leave We also saw entire commu-nities living in temporary-looking structures for over 40 years, because the Port actually visits the community every year to make sure they don’t build permanent structures.•Global City Competitions demands a certain type of infrastructure and Development – conflicting vision for the area. Land security lease through out the site.

•Communities got mobilized during events, such as eviction and fire and port authority evictions. •Livelihood committee, Trash for cash in communities that were not part of BM.•The district office is under-resourced•The communities were weak in terms of mobilizing against evictions at first due to their suspi-cion and trust in getting land tenure and negotiation.

Partnerships and Infrastructure Finance Land and Housing Capabilities•There are weaker network linkages between non-Baan Mankong communities,and with communities beyond the district.•One of the best communities we visited in terms of infrastructure and housing improvements was on the site of Crown Property Land, as there was an alliance with Baan Mankong.•Strong presence of local, national and international NGOs, which are providing support to communities that Baan Mankong cannot reach•They have little power to negoti-ate with or influence the Port Consequently, have weak linkages to communities on Port land.

•The Port and the Market also serve as important sources of livelihood for communities in the district.

•43 registered communities squeezed in between this, some-times on undesirable land (e.g. underneath expressways), other times on land targeted for devel-opment.•Baan Mankong does not address communities that are living in the most precarious situation, in areas without secure tenure, under the threat of eviction.•Or communities that are socially and spatially fragmented, included migrants.•Families are afraid of investing in their homes, because they don’t know when they might need to leave We also saw entire commu-nities living in temporary-looking structures for over 40 years, because the Port actually visits the community every year to make sure they don’t build permanent structures.•Global City Competitions demands a certain type of infrastructure and Development – conflicting vision for the area. Land security lease through out the site.

•Communities got mobilized during events, such as eviction and fire and port authority evictions. •Livelihood committee, Trash for cash in communities that were not part of BM.•The district office is under-resourced•The communities were weak in terms of mobilizing against evictions at first due to their suspi-cion and trust in getting land tenure and negotiation.


Figure 3.18 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Bang Khen district

40 ANALYSIS

3.3.3 PASI CHALOEN

Located within the metropolis, Pasi Chaloen sits on the edge of a rural past facing a rapid development future.

Once agricultural land characterized by several canals, urbanization is now occurring and the city has consumed this site. Most of the communities living here have been relocated here from other parts of the city.

As a result, while the relationship between the local authorities is good the network is fairly weak due to this recent development. However, due to the highly speculative nature of the land, acquiring it is perhaps the largest challenge here.

SITES

Communities visited

Figure 3.19 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Pasi Chaloen district

Canal

Figure 3.20 The community leaders of the district plays an important role facilitating comunication within and between the communities

Photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro

Major roads


Figure 3.21 In Sirin & Friend Community Codi funded the community partly through loans to the cooperative (which repays Codi @ 2% interest and keeps 3% profit for Welfare). There is also a subsidy that Codi addresses directly to the Community of 5.000.000 B$ (of which 3.000.000B$ to level ground and 2.000.000 B$ to build road).

Figure 3.22 In Ra-Sri Tum Community the loans through the cooperative will be repayed to Codi @ 4% interest. Cooperative will keep 3% profit for Welfare. Additionally Codi will provide 2 subsidies: 6.900.000 B$ for land and road construction. and 250.000 B$ for housing construction

•Roles and Responsibilities on environmental issue, such as waste management, are not clearly defined, which creates gaps of management that is reflected on the precarious condi-tions of marginalized pockets of poor settlements. •Opportunity to create partner-ships among communities and with local authorities as well as with inhabitants of other parts of the district affected by same issue.

•Cooperatives for welfare mecha-nisms within the community give opportunity to scale-up to mecha-nism for wider inclusion of individuals and groups which are currently excluded from BM …don’t constitute a viable solution to overcome the gap between the members of communities and the poorest of the poor that still can’t access for financial difficulties.

•Increase density in an area of rapid urbanization could consti-tute a long term viable response to the scarcity of available land in the urban area of Bangkok •Tax incentive for vacant land•Network based Land Bank •Economical constrain to acquire land for the Land Bank•Scarce design response to community’s needs as a conse-quence of marginality of design in list of BM’s priorities.

•Design could play an active role in strengthening spatial and social linkages within the community as well as between the community and the surrounding area as•Design plays a marginal role into BM agenda but Community Architects have limited range of action within the existing priorities of BM.


•Roles and Responsibilities on environmental issue, such as waste management, are not clearly defined, which creates gaps of management that is reflected on the precarious condi-tions of marginalized pockets of poor settlements. •Opportunity to create partner-ships among communities and with local authorities as well as with inhabitants of other parts of the district affected by same issue.

•Cooperatives for welfare mecha-nisms within the community give opportunity to scale-up to mecha-nism for wider inclusion of individuals and groups which are currently excluded from BM …don’t constitute a viable solution to overcome the gap between the members of communities and the poorest of the poor that still can’t access for financial difficulties.

•Increase density in an area of rapid urbanization could consti-tute a long term viable response to the scarcity of available land in the urban area of Bangkok •Tax incentive for vacant land•Network based Land Bank •Economical constrain to acquire land for the Land Bank•Scarce design response to community’s needs as a conse-quence of marginality of design in list of BM’s priorities.

•Design could play an active role in strengthening spatial and social linkages within the community as well as between the community and the surrounding area as•Design plays a marginal role into BM agenda but Community Architects have limited range of action within the existing priorities of BM.


Figure 3.23 Problems and opportunities within Pasi Chaloen district

Sirin & Friend Community Ra-sri Tum Community

Photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro Photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro

42 ANALYSIS

3.3.4 RANGSIT

Situation just outside of Bangkok, Rangsit is of a highly suburban and disconnected nature as it was once agricultural land dominated by irrigation canals.

At the periphery of the city, the issues of migration and urban sprawl collide here. Similar to Pasi Chaloen, land speculation highly affects communities in this region resulting in a landscape dominated by gated communities and empty land.

However, this community is exceptional in its strong community network and close relationship with the municipality.

SITES

Communities visited

Figure 3.24 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Rangsit municipality

Maj

or ro

ad Canal

Figure 3.25 Rangsit position in Bangkok peri-urban area


Figure 3.28. Khlong Toey: actors

•Potential better relations between NHA schemes and communities to share facilities (daycare, etc) that they are exploring at city wide level. •Experimenting with Private contractors as the market is highly competitive in Rangsit right now for this and current success however careful not to detract from capacity training schemes.•Infrastructure: lack of connectivity of sites, especially relocation sites to services as land is cheapest in these dis-connected areas as a result of private ownership and partnerships.

•More developed CDF expansion to include Welfare Fund already, but also “Occupation” training as well as Insurance.•Lack of criteria, while an opportu-nity to completely bypass CODI, this can also be seen as danger-ous in terms of lack of land tenure and high risk.

•Land sharing schemes- 4 communities coming together to share cost of purchasing land on one site. “Sang Saan community. •Lack of available land (large amount of private ownership i.e. land speculation) Lack of regulation by municipality addressing migration and urban sprawl

•Very Strong Network working in cooperation with municipality, NULICO, CODI etc. All on very good terms and in strong commu-nication and alliance on all issues.•“Knowledge Center” specific to each site, in some examples is a concrete block making unit, in others it is helping with accounting for the community, etc. •Working issue based networks which is connecting canal communities together specifically.•The one point that the municipal-ity is not speaking across the province with other municipalities, otherwise no weakness at Community Network level.


Figure 3.26 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Rangsit Municipality

•Potential better relations between NHA schemes and communities to share facilities (daycare, etc) that they are exploring at city wide level. •Experimenting with Private contractors as the market is highly competitive in Rangsit right now for this and current success however careful not to detract from capacity training schemes.•Infrastructure: lack of connectivity of sites, especially relocation sites to services as land is cheapest in these dis-connected areas as a result of private ownership and partnerships.

•More developed CDF expansion to include Welfare Fund already, but also “Occupation” training as well as Insurance.•Lack of criteria, while an opportu-nity to completely bypass CODI, this can also be seen as danger-ous in terms of lack of land tenure and high risk.

•Land sharing schemes- 4 communities coming together to share cost of purchasing land on one site. “Sang Saan community. •Lack of available land (large amount of private ownership i.e. land speculation) Lack of regulation by municipality addressing migration and urban sprawl

•Very Strong Network working in cooperation with municipality, NULICO, CODI etc. All on very good terms and in strong commu-nication and alliance on all issues.•“Knowledge Center” specific to each site, in some examples is a concrete block making unit, in others it is helping with accounting for the community, etc. •Working issue based networks which is connecting canal communities together specifically.•The one point that the municipal-ity is not speaking across the province with other municipalities, otherwise no weakness at Community Network level.


44 ANALYSIS

3.3.5 BANG PU

Like Rangsit, Bang Pu is located outside of Bangkok Municipality, directly on the Thai coast. Environmental hazards in the coastal mangroves and canals that dominate the Bang Pu have affected land availability for communities.

A satellite of Bangkok, this site is expected to grow as several megaprojects are planned for the skytrain, airport expansion, and plans of the Department of Treasury.

Bang Pu is of a peri-urban nature, with many community residents working in the nearby factories or in shrimp and clam farming industries.

SITES

Communities visited

Figure 3.27 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within the Bang Pu municipalityM

ajor road

Figure 3.28 Floating platform used for public gathering in Bang Pu municipality.

Photo by Parvathi Nair


•Community leaders in Bang Poo have strong relationship with local authorities, although transparency of information can be questioned at some point while perceived in responses to specific questions asked in the shared meetings. •Potential for future linkages between communities through the exchange of knowledge and information about the BM process in terms of different forms of upgrading and the challenges that appears during the process. Through building new roads and infrastructure and megaprojects, communities are directly effected.

•Ta Ko canal community success-ful cost cutting project by using recycling materials - cuts 25% of construction•15000 Baht can be saved by using recycled material – reducing cost of construction process as well as translating it to financial assets.•Excluded members of community not having access to BM due to affordability•‘Ta Ko canal’ community is not allowed to have any commercial activities in the area or lower level of their houses which has constrains on their livelihoods. (Design from CODI)

•Large amount of recycling material on sites that can be used for housing – cuts 25% of construction•In the slum formation they had more space, but got lost in the process of appropriation of near home spaces when they got relocated.•The houses are on dirty water but they are still being rebuilt on the same water with the idea of having stronger foundation to substitute. CODI provides the solid base for the house, however they are located on the filthy mud water which is quite hazards and insani-tary.

•The community leaders across Bang Poo know each other while on the contrary the members of community are not familiar with each other. •As a tactic the leaders take members from one community to another.

Partnerships and Infrastructure Finance Land and Housing Capabilities•Community leaders in Bang Poo have strong relationship with local authorities, although transparency of information can be questioned at some point while perceived in responses to specific questions asked in the shared meetings. •Potential for future linkages between communities through the exchange of knowledge and information about the BM process in terms of different forms of upgrading and the challenges that appears during the process. Through building new roads and infrastructure and megaprojects, communities are directly effected.

•Ta Ko canal community success-ful cost cutting project by using recycling materials - cuts 25% of construction•15000 Baht can be saved by using recycled material – reducing cost of construction process as well as translating it to financial assets.•Excluded members of community not having access to BM due to affordability•‘Ta Ko canal’ community is not allowed to have any commercial activities in the area or lower level of their houses which has constrains on their livelihoods. (Design from CODI)

•Large amount of recycling material on sites that can be used for housing – cuts 25% of construction•In the slum formation they had more space, but got lost in the process of appropriation of near home spaces when they got relocated.•The houses are on dirty water but they are still being rebuilt on the same water with the idea of having stronger foundation to substitute. CODI provides the solid base for the house, however they are located on the filthy mud water which is quite hazards and insani-tary.

•The community leaders across Bang Poo know each other while on the contrary the members of community are not familiar with each other. •As a tactic the leaders take members from one community to another.


Figure 3.29 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Bang Pu Municipality

46 ANALYSIS

3.3.6 RATTANAKOSIN ISLAND

Formally Phra Nakon, Rattanakosin is the oldest area in Bangkok and is saturated with historical allures such as The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Emerald Buddah Temple). The largest landowner is the CPB who is responsible for managing the King’s land assets. There is a unique rental system particular to the CPB land that has driven the CPB to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with CODI to upgrade the communities due to preserving the character of the site with participatory conservation. Over the years, there has been a multitude of plans for the area.

These plans have had an increasingly disparaging bearing on tenure for most of the Rattanakosin communities as it failed to recognise the “heritage of local people, such as a daily life landscape, market, and shop house” excluding them from the master plan.

It is this notion of culture as building and disregard for people that is the driving force behind communities in Rattanakosin Island perusing upgrading that supports culture as living heritage in order to not only secure their tenure; but to demonstrate their capacity to set precedent to be outstanding responsible good citizens and change the way they are perceived by the local area and the city, as emphasised by one community leader.

SITES

Communities visited

Figure 3.30 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Rattanakosin island

Touristic node


•Community centre was part of infrastructure proposal to CODI and therefore supported by the grant•Community collaborating with universities: children’s activities, art gallery.•Partnership with private sector in palace: community is able to use space for community activities outside of working hours (agreement is between CPB and private company)•CODI and CPB partnership walking in the alley. •Temple does not grant receipts meaning residents have no proof of occupancy•CODI architect warned TAT should be on board but worried they will get too involved and disrupt peoples lives and livelihood as they want to keep site not the people. •CPB prefer educated profession-als to take lead on tourism

•Private funding from other savings group as well as interest from investment/banking. (wat saket)•Started grading housing grade a and grade b inputting their own design guidelines for quality and preservation.•Loan has been granted but remains in the bank as they have no proposal for plans.Community level comes down to whose funding, receiver you get this but with conditions, develop-ment done for hidden agenda, need to change model of commu-nity development with plan and find sponsor.

•Materials used can increase heights. (currently buildings are concrete on the bottom and wooden on the top)•By law, land owner owns building, if they are evicted, the CPB will reimburse them.•Split in land ownership has split community.•CPB puts restrictions on building heights.•No community space yet (sitram)•If you have a fighting chicken farm how can you live in a high rise? Thai massage how many people will go upstairs, ceramics need oven, how would you integrate that in high rise.

•Middle class contribute to savings group to help others out•Part of a network of a historic walk (between the 6 communities) – eco-tourism walk.•CPB tried to hold training session for each community position but not successful. •Various government departments hold training for 2 comm. Repre-sentatives who should relate to rest of comm.. but the skills are not transferable and community members not interested anymore•Rely on existing asset e.g. accountant but what if he goes? Need to build peoples capacity more.


Rattanakosin Island

•Community centre was part of infrastructure proposal to CODI and therefore supported by the grant•Community collaborating with universities: children’s activities, art gallery.•Partnership with private sector in palace: community is able to use space for community activities outside of working hours (agreement is between CPB and private company)•CODI and CPB partnership walking in the alley. •Temple does not grant receipts meaning residents have no proof of occupancy•CODI architect warned TAT should be on board but worried they will get too involved and disrupt peoples lives and livelihood as they want to keep site not the people. •CPB prefer educated profession-als to take lead on tourism

•Private funding from other savings group as well as interest from investment/banking. (wat saket)•Started grading housing grade a and grade b inputting their own design guidelines for quality and preservation.•Loan has been granted but remains in the bank as they have no proposal for plans.Community level comes down to whose funding, receiver you get this but with conditions, develop-ment done for hidden agenda, need to change model of commu-nity development with plan and find sponsor.

•Materials used can increase heights. (currently buildings are concrete on the bottom and wooden on the top)•By law, land owner owns building, if they are evicted, the CPB will reimburse them.•Split in land ownership has split community.•CPB puts restrictions on building heights.•No community space yet (sitram)•If you have a fighting chicken farm how can you live in a high rise? Thai massage how many people will go upstairs, ceramics need oven, how would you integrate that in high rise.

•Middle class contribute to savings group to help others out•Part of a network of a historic walk (between the 6 communities) – eco-tourism walk.•CPB tried to hold training session for each community position but not successful. •Various government departments hold training for 2 comm. Repre-sentatives who should relate to rest of comm.. but the skills are not transferable and community members not interested anymore•Rely on existing asset e.g. accountant but what if he goes? Need to build peoples capacity more.


Rattanakosin Island

Figure 3.31 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Rattanakosin Island

48 ANALYSIS DIAGNOSIS

3.4 DIAGNOSIS

In the process of distinguishing between the symptoms and the fundamental underlying causes of the concerns.

Challenging, the scale at which they should be addressed and recognizing the involvement of actors, clarifying the extent of their roles and responsibility.

This enhanced grasp, informed our collective clustering of these underlying triggers shifting the initial scope to encompass these new four overarching categories; negotiation, networking, land and alliances with design being inherit in all of these.

3.4.1 NEGOTIATION

The BM Programme has given communities tremendous capacity to negotiate with actors, for instance by collecting and owning data that enhances their power to negotiate when entering discussions with different actors. If communities cannot enter such dialogue with actors they collectively default to mass demonstrations in order to voice their demands.

DiagnosisConstrainedNegoGaGon

BangKhen

RaOanakosinIsland

KlongToey

DiagnosisLackofLandAccessibility

KlongToey

Figure 3.32 Shack by the canal in Bang Khen. Photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani

Photo by Silvia Chi

Figure 3.34 View from the Klong Toey District Authority building

Figure 3.33 A bridge in Bang Khen community: an example of community mobilisation to fullfill the role of the municipality

Photo by Mahya Fatemi

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 49 DIAGNOSIS

While this represents an example of exercising their freedoms it also highlights that there is lack of space for negotiation. This was evident in the case of Khlong Toey where the insecurity of land and tenure, as well as the complexity of urbanization suppressed the community from being fully integrated into the decision making process surrounding the development plans made by the Port Authority. In order to avoid the instrumentalisation of the community and create a balance of power in the decision making process the roles and responsibilities of actors need to be clarified and redefined.

Highlighting this tension between supply and demand is the example of Bang Khen (Figure 3.33) where for four years the community requested the local municipality to rebuild a broken bridge that was essential for connectivity on the site. However, even after making their needs clear the municipality failed to acknowledge their request.

Consequently, the community self-mobilized and collected donations from visitors in order to finance the construction, thus successfully rebuilding the bridge. While this illustrates the strength of the community to proactively respond to infrastructural challenges, it raises important questions of how far these communities are being asked to mobilize and at what point they are being asked to fulfill the responsibilities of the Municipality.


BangKhen

RaOanakosinIsland

KlongToey


BangKhen

RaOanakosinIsland

KlongToey

National level

Metropolitan level

District level

Household level

Community level

Levels in which the problem is present

Figure 3.35 The main issue in Rattanakosin Island concerned the lack of willingness of CODI to start or help facilitate negotiation with the Temple land to include the poor communities in the BM Programme.

Figure 3.36 View of the port in Khlong Toey. The communities have little power to negotiate with or influence the Port Authority in terms of Land Tenure and the pressures of the Global City Competition master plan.

Photo by Dhrin Anantamongkolchai

Photo by Silvia Chi

50 ANALYSIS

3.4.2 LAND ACCESSIBILITY AND AFFORDABILITY

The rapid urban development pressures on land pose great challenges for allocating affordable land and securing land tenure within the city centre.

Land owners are not willing to negotiate on the price of land to accommodate the urban poor and the price of land is the result of its centrality to the goods and services of the urban centre.

Additionally, there are a lot of interstitial spaces that are not being fully utilized. Therefore, there is a need for land readjustment on these unfilled, open space fragments in order to establish greater productivity and connectivity, particularly within the superblocks.

There have been emerging symptoms of gentrification and densification in Khlong Toey due to the intense pressures on the central business district, forcing residents to cluster on undesirable land, such as spaces underneath expressways or land that is earmarked for development. These communities are priced out of decent land as there is greater return and profit to be made by landowners, as a consequence of this, private developers negating the possibility of negotiation.

DIAGNOSIS

DiagnosisWeakKnowledgeSharingProcess

Rangsit

BangPoo

RaOanakosinIsland

Figure 3.37 Land speculation spurred by the majority of private ownership in Rangsit with plans to develop private residential units restricted negotiation for the price of land.

Figure 3.38 Different communities in Rattanakosin Island are facing the same problems in terms of the tourist and master plan; however they have no forum to discuss for collective solutions. ( for more information refer to Annex page 141)


Photo by Dhrin Anantamongkolchai

Figure 3.39 Interstitial spaces in the cityPhoto by Silvia Chi


3.4.3 UNEVEN KNOWLEDGE SHARING & NETWORKING

Changing the space but not changing the slum values

Knowledge sharing within communities proved to be strong, however, there was a weak correlation of knowledge transfer between certain communities regardless of their status with the BM Programme. This is a missed opportunity as information regarding the BM Programme and the lessons learned by communities, the resources and skills that they possess that could build their capacity are not capitalized on.

Rangsit represents a highly organized community where they efficiently utilized their network of community’s skills of building construction and design in order to inform their design process. However, Rangsit networking strength raises the important question of why this is not happening elsewhere and how come there are so many projects being developed in the scale of the community without knowledge sharing taking place in the scale of the district, losing the opportunity to strengthen the network within the district and the city.

In the same district, there is a strong presence of CDF´s that has emerged as an alternative and autonomous finance mechanism to CODI’s loan in the districts where it is implemented. However, this initiative presents the risk of being itself counterproductive as communities are obtaining CDF financing to build/ upgrade their homes regardless of land title, that can lead to potentially recreate ‘slums’-maintaining and multiply an insecure land tenure settlement. Considering this risk, the production of knowledge is central for a community that is managing CDF`s funds.


Rangsit

BangPoo

RaOanakosinIsland


Rangsit

BangPoo

RaOanakosinIsland


Rangsit

BangPoo

RaOanakosinIsland

Figure 3.40 Bang Pu Community workshop Lack of networking within Bang Pu as community members were not acquainted with one another and one of the community was not aware of the different strategies that BM Programme offers to address their housing problem in terms of upgrading.( Refer to Annex page 154 for further detail on community workshops held in Bang Pu)

Figure 3.41 Rangsit Community building

Figure 3.42 Rangsit community homes in progressPhoto by McKenzie O`Neill


Photo by Parvathi Nair

52 ANALYSIS

3.4.4 LIMITED DESIGN RESPONSE “Planning for communities but design for individuals”

When land is allocated and the communities begin the building process there is an overemphasis on the planning and design of individual plots. The BM Programme’s success originates from its value of collective problem solving, where consensual decision-making is an integral aspect of each project. However, the housing typology within communities is detached housing.

There is a need for more community input in the design process in order to develop housing strategies that would represent the local vernacular and could accommodate changes in household needs over time. Equally, on the larger scale land plots are not being designed as cohesive spaces with appropriated areas for recreation, places of gathering and social enterprise. Additionally, there is a need for design strategies that would improve the productivity of the site through utilizing ecological services such as the reclamation of water or the onsite production of food. Also, the community architect could be a vehicle to promote greater knowledge sharing within the community and between communities.

The longevity of buildings, quality of construction and design may not be on par in the future, due to the forward thinking design motto of the community that captures what they can afford at the given timeframe. This incremental built form will be stark contrast to the rest of the competing city skyline that has plans leveraging vertical scenarios.

DiagnosisLimitedDesignResponse

KlongToey

PasiChalen

DIAGNOSIS


KlongToey

PasiChalen


KlongToey

PasiChalen

Figure 3.43 Walkway through Pasi Chaleon

Figure 3.44 Pasi Chaloen housing design Land is a limited resource however the ineffective configuration of housing plots does not allow the community to capitalise on the full potential of their space; this can be addressed through an efficient design response. (Refer to Annex page 136)

Figure 3.45 Khlong Toey open spaces The prevalence of interstitial spaces in Khlong Toey presented for a fragmented urban fabric where there were disjointed pockets of unused space

Photo by Silvia Chi




3.4.5 DISTILLING THE DIAGNOSIS: A GRAPHIC INTERPRETATION

As a graphic synthesis of our diagnosis, we develop these diagrams to compare the problems and opportunities across the six sites and identify the common denominators throughout. Thus clustering them according to the nature of the problem relating to: design, access, partnership, roles and relationships knowledge network and resource. Stacking these cubes adjacently, each being a representative of an issue makes it easier to compare the sites and see visually the density of each problem according to not only the site but to the overall distribution. Following a thorough analysis, we identified four entry points to address this array of issues.

Figure 3.47 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about NETWORKS across the six sites

Figure 3.46 Key for the cubes in the graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities across the six sites


Figure 3.48 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about ACCESS across the six sites (explanatory chart in the next page)

Figure 3.49 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about RESOURCES across the six sites


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Figure 3.50 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about KNOWLEDGE SHARING across the six sites

Figure 3.51 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about DESIGN across the six sites (explanatory chart in the next page)

Figure 3.52 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about ROLES AND NEGOTIATION across the six sites


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rren

tly

max

imiz

ing

thei

r ar

ea (

in l

ine

with

gro

wth

of t

he c

ity)

•Acc

ordi

ng to

des

ign

stan

dard

s th

e fa

ct t

hat

the

com

mun

ities

ar

e no

t ad

aptin

g to

cha

ngin

g ci

ty la

ndsc

ape.

•Lon

gevi

ty

of

the

build

ings

, qu

ality

of

co

nstru

ctio

n an

d de

sign

may

not

be

desi

rabl

e in

th

e fu

ture

.

•The

re h

as b

een

a de

finite

loss

of

pub

lic s

pace

s af

ter

the

BM

pr

ojec

t w

hich

re

quire

s m

ore

desi

gn fe

atur

e.

•Usi

ng p

rote

st a

s a

mea

ns o

f co

mm

unic

atio

n w

hich

can

be

rela

ted

to n

eed

of c

apac

ity fo

r ne

gotia

tion

.

•Glo

bal

City

C

ompe

titio

ns

dem

ands

a

certa

in

type

of

in

frast

ruct

ure

and

Dev

elop

-m

ent –

con

flict

ing

visi

on fo

r the

ar

ea.

Land

se

curit

y le

ase

thro

ugho

ut th

e si

te.

•Incr

ease

den

sity

in a

n ar

ea o

f ra

pid

urba

niza

tion

coul

d

cons

titut

e a

long

ter

m v

iabl

e re

spon

se

to

the

scar

city

of

av

aila

ble

land

in

th

e ur

ban

area

of B

angk

ok.

•Sca

rce

desi

gn

resp

onse

to

co

mm

unity

’s

need

s as

a

cons

eque

nce

of m

argi

nalit

y of

de

sign

in li

st o

f BM

’s p

riorit

ies.

•Des

ign

coul

d pl

ay a

n ac

tive

role

in

st

reng

then

ing

spat

ial

and

soci

al l

inka

ges

with

in t

he

com

mun

ity a

s w

ell a

s be

twee

n th

e co

mm

unity

an

d th

e su

rrou

ndin

g ar

ea.

•Des

ign

play

s a

mar

gina

l ro

le

into

BM

age

nda

but

Com

mu-

nity

A

rchi

tect

s ha

ve

limite

d ra

nge

of

actio

n w

ithin

th

e ex

istin

g pr

iorit

ies

of B

M.

•Lac

k of

reg

ulat

ion

by m

unic

i-pa

lity

addr

essi

ng

mig

ratio

n an

d ur

ban

spra

wl.

•Lac

k of

reg

ulat

ion

by m

unic

i-pa

lity

addr

essi

ng

mig

ratio

n an

d ur

ban

spra

wl.

•‘Ta

Ko

cana

l’ com

mun

ity is

not

al

low

ed t

o ha

ve a

ny c

omm

er-

cial

act

iviti

es i

n th

e ar

ea o

r lo

wer

le

vel

of

thei

r ho

uses

w

hich

has

con

stra

ins

on t

heir

livel

ihoo

ds.

(Des

ign

from

C

OD

I)

•In th

e sl

um fo

rmat

ion

they

had

m

ore

spac

e, b

ut g

ot lo

st in

the

proc

ess

of

appr

opria

tion

of

near

hom

e sp

aces

whe

n th

ey

got r

eloc

ated

.

•The

hou

ses

are

on d

irty

wat

er

but

they

are

stil

l be

ing

rebu

ilt

on t

he s

ame

wat

er w

ith t

he

idea

of h

avin

g st

rong

er fo

unda

-tio

n to

su

bstit

ute.

C

OD

I pr

ovid

es th

e so

lid b

ase

for

the

hous

e,

how

ever

th

ey

are

loca

ted

on th

e fil

thy

mud

wat

er

whi

ch

is

quite

ha

zard

s an

d in

sani

tary

.

•Sta

rted

grad

ing

hous

ing

grad

e a

and

grad

e b

inpu

tting

the

ir ow

n de

sign

gu

idel

ines

fo

r qu

ality

and

pre

serv

atio

n.

•Loa

n ha

s be

en g

rant

ed b

ut

rem

ains

in

the

bank

as

they

ha

ve n

o pr

opos

al fo

r pla

ns.

•Mat

eria

ls u

sed

can

incr

ease

he

ight

s (c

urre

ntly

bui

ldin

gs a

re

conc

rete

on

the

botto

m

and

woo

den

on th

e to

p)

•Spl

it in

lan

d ow

ners

hip

has

split

com

mun

ity

•CP

B

puts

re

stric

tions

on

bu

ildin

g he

ight

s. •N

o co

mm

unity

sp

ace

yet

(Sitr

am).

Ban

g K

hen

Khl

iong

Toe

yP

asi C

halo

enR

angs

itB

ang

Pu

Rat

tana

kosi

n Is

land

DESIGN


Figure 3.54 Summary of problems and opportunities across the six sites

Figure 3.53 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about PARTNERSHIPS AND INFRASTRUCTURE across the six sites (explanatory chart in the next page)


•Usi

ng p

rote

st a

s a

mea

ns o

f co

mm

unic

atio

n w

hich

can

be

rela

ted

to n

eed

of c

apac

ity fo

r ne

gotia

tion.

•Sin

ce 2

007

ther

e ha

s be

en n

o vi

sit f

rom

CO

DI a

rchi

tect

whi

ch

show

s a

disc

onne

ct b

etw

een

CO

DI

arch

itect

an

d co

mm

u-ni

ty.

•The

com

mun

ities

with

par

tner

-sh

ip w

ith m

unic

ipal

ity a

gree

d on

the

New

Bui

ldin

g C

odes

for

gove

rnm

enta

l pr

ojec

ts

whi

ch

give

s m

ore

room

for m

aneu

ver

in te

rms

of d

esig

n as

pect

s an

d pl

anni

ng.

•CD

F h

as s

calin

g up

lim

ita-

tions

whi

ch s

elf-s

uffic

ienc

y is

a

mot

ivat

ion,

bu

t th

e fu

nd

is

inex

trica

bly

linke

d to

CO

DI f

or

cont

inui

ty.

•Une

ven

awar

enes

s of

re

sour

ces

and

info

rmat

ion

avai

labl

e in

oth

er d

istri

cts

due

to

scar

city

of

ne

twor

ks

and

partn

ersh

ips.

•Par

tner

ship

with

Act

ion

Aid

for

finan

cial

ly s

uppo

rting

the

Ban

g B

ua n

urse

ry. (

only

NG

O)

•One

of

the

best

com

mun

ities

w

e vi

site

d in

te

rms

of

infra

stru

ctur

e an

d ho

usin

g im

prov

emen

ts w

as o

n th

e si

te

of C

row

n P

rope

rty L

and,

as

ther

e w

as a

n al

lianc

e w

ith

Baa

n M

an K

ong.

•The

y ha

ve

little

po

wer

to

ne

gotia

te w

ith o

r in

fluen

ce th

e P

ort C

onse

quen

tly, h

ave

wea

k lin

kage

s to

co

mm

uniti

es

on

Por

t lan

d.

•Stro

ng

pres

ence

of

lo

cal,

natio

nal

and

inte

rnat

iona

l N

GO

s,

whi

ch

are

prov

idin

g su

ppor

t to

co

mm

uniti

es

that

B

aan

Man

Kon

g ca

nnot

reac

h.

•Rol

es a

nd R

espo

nsib

ilitie

s on

en

viro

nmen

tal

issu

e, s

uch

as

was

te

man

agem

ent,

are

not

clea

rly d

efin

ed,

whi

ch c

reat

es

gaps

of

man

agem

ent

that

is

refle

cted

on

th

e pr

ecar

ious

co

nditi

ons

of

mar

gina

lized

po

cket

s of

poo

r se

ttlem

ents

. Th

eref

ore

this

giv

e op

portu

nity

to

cre

ate

partn

ersh

ips

amon

g co

mm

uniti

es

and

with

lo

cal

auth

oriti

es

as

wel

l as

w

ith

inha

bita

nts

of o

ther

par

ts o

f the

di

stric

t affe

cted

by

sam

e is

sue.

•Pot

entia

l be

tter

rela

tions

be

twee

n N

HA

sche

mes

an

d co

mm

uniti

es to

sha

re fa

cilit

ies

(day

care

, et

c.)

that

the

y ar

e ex

plor

ing

at c

ity w

ide

leve

l. •E

xper

imen

ting

with

P

rivat

e co

ntra

ctor

s as

the

mar

ket

is

high

ly c

ompe

titiv

e in

Ran

gsit

right

now

for

thi

s an

d cu

rren

t su

cces

s ho

wev

er c

aref

ul n

ot to

de

tract

fro

m c

apac

ity t

rain

ing

sche

mes

.

•Ver

y S

trong

Net

wor

k w

orki

ng

in c

oope

ratio

n w

ith m

unic

ipal

-ity

, NU

LIC

O, C

OD

I etc

. A

ll on

ve

ry g

ood

term

s an

d in

stro

ng

com

mun

icat

ion

and

allia

nce

on

all i

ssue

s.

•Wor

king

is

sue

base

d ne

twor

ks w

hich

are

con

nect

ing

cana

l co

mm

uniti

es

toge

ther

sp

ecifi

cally

.

•Com

mun

ity l

eade

rs i

n B

ang

Poo

hav

e st

rong

rel

atio

nshi

p w

ith lo

cal a

utho

ritie

s, a

lthou

gh

trans

pare

ncy

of

info

rmat

ion

can

be

ques

tione

d at

so

me

poin

t w

hile

pe

rcei

ved

in

resp

onse

s to

sp

ecifi

c qu

estio

ns a

sked

in th

e sh

ared

m

eetin

gs.

•Due

to h

avin

g on

e co

mm

unity

ar

chite

ct fo

r the

who

le o

f Ban

g-ko

k an

d la

ck o

f pr

ofes

sion

als

such

as

arch

itect

s th

e co

mm

u-ni

ty p

eopl

e ar

e m

isgu

ided

and

ar

e no

t ful

ly in

form

ed a

bout

the

effe

cts

and

cons

eque

nces

of

havi

ng n

ew d

evel

opm

ents

.

•Com

mun

ity c

olla

bora

ting

with

un

iver

sitie

s:

child

ren’

s ac

tiviti

es, a

rt ga

llery

.

•Par

tner

ship

with

priv

ate

sect

or

in p

alac

e: c

omm

unity

is a

ble

to

use

spac

e fo

r co

mm

unity

ac

tiviti

es

outs

ide

of

wor

king

ho

urs.

(ag

reem

ent

is b

etw

een

CP

B a

nd p

rivat

e co

mpa

ny)

•Tem

ple

does

no

t gr

ant

rece

ipts

m

eani

ng

resi

dent

s ha

ve n

o pr

oof o

f occ

upan

cy.

•CO

DI

arch

itect

an

d C

PB

? W

arn

TAT

shou

ld b

e on

boa

rd

but

wor

ried

they

will

get

too

in

volv

ed a

nd d

isru

pt p

eopl

e’s

lives

an

d liv

elih

ood

as

they

w

ant

to

keep

si

te

not

the

peop

le.

•Com

mun

ity le

vel c

omes

dow

n to

who

se fu

ndin

g, re

ceiv

er y

ou

get

this

bu

t w

ith

cond

ition

s,

deve

lopm

ent

done

for

hid

den

agen

da, n

eed

to c

hang

e m

odel

of

co

mm

unity

D

evel

opm

ent

with

pla

n an

d fin

d sp

onso

r.

•Mid

dle

clas

s co

ntrib

ute

to

savi

ngs

grou

p to

hel

p ot

hers

ou

t.

Ban

g K

hen

Khl

iong

Toe

yP

asi C

halo

enR

angs

itB

ang

Pu

Rat

tana

kosi

n Is

land

PARTNERSHIP & INFRASTRUCTURE


Figure 3.55 Multi scalar entry points of analysis diagram ( see next page for key and explanation)

Infrastructure lack of connectivity of sites, especially relocation sites to services as land is cheapest in these

disconnected areas as a result of private ownership and

partnerships

Lack of re g u l a ti o n

by the municipality addressing migration

and urban sprawl

within the community give opportunity to scale-up to mechanism for wider

inclusion of individuals and groups which are currently excluded from BM …don’t constitute a viable solution to overcome the gap between the members of communities and

the poorest of the poor that cant accessfor financial difficulty

Started grading housing grade a and

grade b inputting their own design guidelines for quality and

p r e s e r v a ti o n

Global city competition demands

a certain type ofinfrastructure and development- conflicting vision for the area. Land security

lease throughoutthe site

Roles and responsibilities on environmental issues,

such as waste management, are not clearly defined, which creates

gaps of management that is reflected on the precarious conditions of marginalized pockets of poor settlements. Thereforethis gives opportunity to create partnerships among communities and with

local authorities as well as with habitants of other parts of the

district affected by thesame issue

CPB prefer tohave profession-

als take the leadon tourism

U n e v e n awareness of

resources and information available in other districts due to scarcity

of networks andpartnerships

CPB attempted for

two years to get different communities to network, however this top down

approach has beenunsuccessful

Little power to negotiate with or

influence the Port consequently, have weak linkages to

community onPort land




Imbalance of roles

and relationships, canal cleaning every month with

borrowing the BMA boats which can on the contrary indicate the imbalance sharing of relationship and roles resulted in the communities acting like a municipality which

might result with over burden of work and an isolated city

p e r c e p ti o n

There are weaker network

linkages between BMand non BM communi-

ties and those beyond the

district

Potential for

future linkages between communities through the

exchange of knowledge and information about BM

process in terms of upgrading and the challenges

that appears duringthe process

The community

leaders such as in Bang Poo know each other well whilst the communities are not

as familiar witheach other

The municipal-

ity is not communi- cating across the province with other

municipalities

Design in CODI

could play an active role in strengthening

spatial and social linkages within the community as well as between the

community and thesurrounding areas

Design in CODI

could play an active role in strengthening spatial

and social linkages within the community as well as between the community

and the surroundingareas

One architect for

the whole of Bangkok and lack of professionals

means the community can be misguided and are not fully informed about the effects and consequences of having

certain developments

Uneven knowledge between the communities

can create misunderstanding and fragmented partnerships asone example indicates a commu-nity member employee of government opposing to BM project

due to not being aware of the project being supported

by government

Various government

departments holdtraining for communities with two

representatives from each elected to attend, however they are expected to relate to the rest of the group; but the skills they are taught are not easily transferable at times

irrelevant, thus the community has lost interest in this

o p p o r t u n i t y

CDF is also being

used to bypass funding from CODI (e.g. Ruamjai Patthana Klang), where community does

not have collectiveland title

Increase density

in an area of rapid urbanization could

constitute a long term viable response to the scarcity of available land

in the urban area ofBangkok

C o m m u n i ti e s squeezed into and in

between undesirable land such as underneath expressways, other times on land earmarked for

d e v e l o p m e n t




The district office is under

re s o u rc e d

Families are afraid

of investing in their homes, insecurity over

eviction, entire communities living in temporary- looking structures for over 40years, because the port actually visits the community every year to

make sure they don’t buildpermanent structures

Ta-Ko canal” community is not

allowed to have any commercial activities in the area or lower level of their houses which has

constrains on theirl i v e l i h o o d s

Excluded

members of community not

having access to BMdue to affordability

In the slum

formation they had more space, but lost inthe process of appropria-

tion of near home spaces when they

get relocated

BM does not

address communities that are living in the most

precarious situation, in areas without secure tenure, under the threat

of eviction

Scarce design

response to communities needs as a consequence of marginality of design

in list of BMpriorities

Longevity of the

buildings, quality of construction and

design may not be desirable in the future

priorities

NATIONAL/CODI

CITY

MUNICIPALITY

COMMUNITY

FINANCE LAND AND HOUSING CONSTRUCTION PARTNERSHIPS AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING

DISTRICTNETWORK

Using protest asa means of commu-

nication which can be related to need of capacity and space

for negotiation


Infrastructure lack of connectivity of sites, especially relocation sites to services as land is cheapest in these

disconnected areas as a result of private ownership and

partnerships

Lack of re g u l a ti o n

by the municipality addressing migration

and urban sprawl

within the community give opportunity to scale-up to mechanism for wider

inclusion of individuals and groups which are currently excluded from BM …don’t constitute a viable solution to overcome the gap between the members of communities and

the poorest of the poor that cant accessfor financial difficulty

Started grading housing grade a and

grade b inputting their own design guidelines for quality and

p r e s e r v a ti o n

Global city competition demands

a certain type ofinfrastructure and development- conflicting vision for the area. Land security

lease throughoutthe site

Roles and responsibilities on environmental issues,

such as waste management, are not clearly defined, which creates

gaps of management that is reflected on the precarious conditions of marginalized pockets of poor settlements. Thereforethis gives opportunity to create partnerships among communities and with

local authorities as well as with habitants of other parts of the

district affected by thesame issue

CPB prefer tohave profession-

als take the leadon tourism

U n e v e n awareness of

resources and information available in other districts due to scarcity

of networks andpartnerships

CPB attempted for

two years to get different communities to network, however this top down

approach has beenunsuccessful







Imbalance of roles

and relationships, canal cleaning every month with

borrowing the BMA boats which can on the contrary indicate the imbalance sharing of relationship and roles resulted in the communities acting like a municipality which

might result with over burden of work and an isolated city

p e r c e p ti o n

There are weaker network

linkages between BMand non BM communi-

ties and those beyond the

district

Potential for

future linkages between communities through the

exchange of knowledge and information about BM

process in terms of upgrading and the challenges

that appears duringthe process

The community

leaders such as in Bang Poo know each other well whilst the communities are not

as familiar witheach other

The municipal-

ity is not communi- cating across the province with other

municipalities

Design in CODI

could play an active role in strengthening

spatial and social linkages within the community as well as between the

community and thesurrounding areas

Design in CODI

could play an active role in strengthening spatial

and social linkages within the community as well as between the community

and the surroundingareas

One architect for

the whole of Bangkok and lack of professionals

means the community can be misguided and are not fully informed about the effects and consequences of having

certain developments

Uneven knowledge between the communities

can create misunderstanding and fragmented partnerships asone example indicates a commu-nity member employee of government opposing to BM project

due to not being aware of the project being supported

by government

Various government

departments holdtraining for communities with two

representatives from each elected to attend, however they are expected to relate to the rest of the group; but the skills they are taught are not easily transferable at times

irrelevant, thus the community has lost interest in this

o p p o r t u n i t y

CDF is also being

used to bypass funding from CODI (e.g. Ruamjai Patthana Klang), where community does

not have collectiveland title

Increase density

in an area of rapid urbanization could

constitute a long term viable response to the scarcity of available land

in the urban area ofBangkok







The district office is under

re s o u rc e d

Families are afraid

of investing in their homes, insecurity over

eviction, entire communities living in temporary- looking structures for over 40years, because the port actually visits the community every year to

make sure they don’t buildpermanent structures

Ta-Ko canal” community is not

allowed to have any commercial activities in the area or lower level of their houses which has

constrains on theirl i v e l i h o o d s

Excluded

members of community not

having access to BMdue to affordability

In the slum

formation they had more space, but lost inthe process of appropria-

tion of near home spaces when they

get relocated

BM does not

address communities that are living in the most

precarious situation, in areas without secure tenure, under the threat

of eviction

Scarce design

response to communities needs as a consequence of marginality of design

in list of BMpriorities

Longevity of the

buildings, quality of construction and

design may not be desirable in the future

priorities

NATIONAL/CODI

CITY

MUNICIPALITY

COMMUNITY

FINANCE LAND AND HOUSING CONSTRUCTION PARTNERSHIPS AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND CAPACITY BUILDING

DISTRICTNETWORK

Using protest asa means of commu-

nication which can be related to need of capacity and space

for negotiation


Figure 3.56 Key of the Multi scalar entry points of analysis diagram ( previous figure, page 60)

MULTI SCALAR ENTRY POINTS DIAGRAM EXPLANATION

Comparing the different stacks of density that reflect the opportunities and problems, we were able to identify the entry points that would address these problems. For example, in Roles and Partnerships the lack of concession and cooperation between the actors is partly due to the fact that roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined. Therefore we see negotiation can be the entry point towards solving these factors, as people can understand their responsibilities and be able to reach agreements for their needs by making partnerships and alliances and better delimit the space for negotiation.

On the horizontal axis is the initial lens through which we analysed the sites. The vertical axis indicates the scale at which the problems could be addressed according to where the relevant actors are positioned, and additionally require a multi-scalar response. The spheres are colour coded according to the entry point by which they could be resolved. The different sizes of the spheres reflect the importance of issues with regard to the horizontal axis, large being a dominant factor, medium size being significant and small being dormant.

Here, the common denominators of opportunities and constraints across the sites have been identified and classify the resonant issues. It is important to challenge the scale at which they should be addressed and recognize the involvement of the actors and clarify the extent of their roles and responsibility. This enhanced grasp, informed our collective clustering of these underlying triggers, shifting the initial scope to encompass these new four overarching categories: Negotiation, Networking, Land Access and Alliances with design being inherit in all of these.


3.5 CONCLUSION Through our exposure to the work of CODI we have seen how Soomsook Boonyabancha promotes a “paradigm shift in housing development by people building new local partnerships.” This process of transformation emphasises the change from supply to demand driven housing development by the community. However, in order to ensure the long-term success of this project there needs to be more room for manoeuvre, spaces for negotiation and a clearer definition of the roles and responsibilities of actors. This will be essential in order to increase accountability and promote good governance of citywide responsibilities.

The rules of the formal game exclude many options presented by informal solutions. “In summary – the urban poor rely, for their survival, on their capacity to break the rules, whilst the state relies for its success on enforcement of the rules. Neither side succeeds in solving the problem and other players such as formal financial institutions remain on the outside not knowing how, why and where they can fit in. No one wins”. (McLeod & Mullard, Bridging the Finance Gap in Housing & Infrastructure, 2006)

Since housing design regulations are made to fit the middle class, CODI is using political negotiation to redefine standards to better suit poor communities. This is conflicting to BM practices as there is a limited design response on CODI’s behalf. Communities are given an option from a catalogue of housing design, neglecting the full capacity of community architects, focusing transformation on prioritising the social attributes of the programme and overlooking the power of design as a means to reinforce the social aspect of it.

A recurrent matter in all this issues arose, the need of a more effective knowledge-sharing scheme that is crucial for the communities to open opportunities for negotiation and make informed decisions about design, land acquisition, and manage various financing systems that they are actively engaged in. The outcomes of these analyses will inform the strategies in the next chapter, building upon the strengths and opportunities whilst effectively addressing the problems and issues at a multi-scalar level and with the inclusion of the relevant actors.

STRATEGIES

“ Networks have power, they are visible unlike individuals who are invisible.” -Somsook Boonyabancha

Translation: “Economically Sustainable Community”, Photo by McKenzie O’Neill


STRATEGIES

66 STRATEGIES

4.0 STRATEGIES4.1 VISION

In this report we have sought to identify the main issues of the BM Programme in the wide context of the city of Bangkok. Our analysis also appraised the opportunities and challenges of the Programme.

Among the latter, we identify: land accessibility and affordability, spaces of negotiation, roles and responsibilities of the various actors, limited design responses, and production of knowledge. All these challenges are vitally connected to various financial systems being the main driver for further possibility of development.

Therefore, our vision is to build a strong network of communities able to negotiate their spaces of participation in a political arena. This should happen through an effective process of knowledge-sharing which would also ensure better design responses with impacts on different scales – from community, through district and finally a city level.

VISION

In order to achieve this vision, we propose the following strategies for community development:

• Increase land accessibility and affordability • Strengthen networks and capitalize design

solutions through a knowledge sharing process

• Decrease vulnerability of communities by expanding accessibility to alternative funding

• Develop alliances among the actors to optimise the capacity of negotiation and to redefine responsibilities

Within these strategies, we develop eight proposals to address the different challenges in the variety of scales of the urban processes: community, district and city. Some of our proposals present a synergy among them and are crosscutting through several of the challenges we identify in the diagnosis.

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 67 VISION

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68 STRATEGIES

4.2 STRATEGIES AND PROPOSALS

4.2.1 INCREASE LAND ACCESSIBILITY AND AFFORDABILITY

In Bangkok, the urban-rural interface is a highly dynamic space, affected by multiple forces, both human and environmental. The urban footprint is expanding outwards impacting surrounding territories while a constant influx of rural migrants are drawn inwards towards the city centre. The combination of these two opposing forces has resulted in the urbanisation of agriculture. The pressures between sprawl and migration place demands on land, so there is a great need to develop mechanisms that could accommodate growing urban populations.

Due to restricted accessibility of land plots, communities are forced to live in isolated areas with insufficient infrastructure. This social and spatial disconnection consequently results in difficulty accessing economic opportunities. Even though some communities, such as Rangsit, listed a set of criteria for livelihood, including proximity to their original site and accessibility to children’s schools, in most instances the deciding factor was the price of the land. As large portions of land are developed over time this could lead to an increase in urban sprawl and a lack of productivity within communities.

LAND

With this being said, there is a great willingness amongst communities for alternative building typologies. In our interviews with the Bang Pu communities there was a positive response to our proposed ideas of housing typologies that would offer more flexibility and higher density,

GOAL OF OUR STRATEGY

Based on observations of the multiple realities in Bangkok that affect its markets and people, the acknowledged necessity to address not only permanent residents but also temporary ones and the challenges, current limitations and possibilities of the BM Programme, we propose three actions oriented towards densification, intensification and increased productivity of land. They would not only result in improved affordability and accessibility of land for communities, but aim to have positive implications in the social, economic, spatial and environmental spheres at the citywide level.

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 69 LAND

Figure 4.2b Land to be developed in Pasi Chaloen

Figure 4.2a Community over water in Bang Pu

Figure 4.2c Canal community in Bang Bua


Photo by Jennifer Cirne


70 STRATEGIES

PROPOSAL 1. DENSITY

Increasing density for better affordability and accessibility

Where there is scarcity of land, like in Pathum Thani and Pasi Chaloen, the potential of increasing density for better affordability and accessibility needs to be explored. More communities can join together to acquire land similar to several communities in Rangsit (See Figure 4.4, note this image does not depict Rangsit). However, instead of opting for an area that would have normally been used, they can choose a smaller plot, possibly in a more central area (applicable also for individual communities), and a design solution that allows for higher density(See Figure 4.3).

However, these re-densification schemes can only be successful if they accommodate the community’s social and livelihood needs. This

would be achieved with the active involvement of the community in the design process and a re-definition of the role of the community architect.

The main actors involved in the implementation of this strategy are the municipality, local authorities, CODI and the community architects. This neighbourhood design proposal at the community scale needs to be incorporated in and facilitated by a densification policy framework at the metropolitan level as a coordinated work among the several municipalities that form Bangkok city. We recognize that the mitigation of urban sprawl requires cooperation between local and district authorities following a national strategy for sustainable urban development.

Figure 4.3 Illustration of how half the amount of money can be used to purchase land by increasing density.

LAND


Figure 4.4 Representation of how densification can provide housing, social and livelihood responses in restricted land availability or more opportunities of land for various communities.

LAND

72 STRATEGIES LAND

PROPOSAL 2. INTENSITY

Increasing productivity of interstitial spaces

Interstitial space, meaning “in between” characterizes many of Bangkok’s urban landscape. There is an opportunity for land readjustment on these unfilled, open space fragments that would offer greater flexibility of spatial uses in the city centre. Exploring strategies for possible community usage is highly attractive for various reasons — the potential of the land, as seen by the landowner, has already been fulfilled. They have been subjected to market forces and the estimated profit has already been achieved therefore interest in further investment is lost.

They do however remain under-developed, forgotten and unrecognizable as places suitable for additional, alternative use. As such, they represent an opportunity for adjacent communities to appropriate or negotiate with the landowner. Recognizing the risks of pollution and traffic, the opportunity of these sites lies in the paradox of their centrality contrasting with their state of oblivion. Increasing the intensity of these spaces by incorporating them for community use has positive implications on various scales.

Figure 4.5 Interstitial space under raised houses used as community space.

In the city scale, they function as cohesive transitions between landscapes, which results in a better integration of urban fabric. They have been created with the fragmentation of infrastructure in Bangkok and could work towards reconnecting it again; in the district scale, they represent the opportunity of bridging communities together; in the community scale, they dissolve the strong boundaries between the different communities and open up communities to each other. The actors involved in this process are the communities, public and private landowners, municipalities and district authorities.

Interstitial Spaces: Figure 4.5 demonstrates a possible use of the abandoned space under the raised homes that are built above water. Some people use this space for storage or garbage disposal, which was observed on site in Bang Pu. This interstitial space can be used in many ways that best fits the community, such as communal meeting space, and/or children’s play area. It can also be used for individual family use, such as dining area, living area, and/or storage. Figure 4.6 demonstrates another type of interstitial spaces adjacent to communities that have no specific use, as observed in some communities in Khlong Toey. This can be used as space for community social activities, art performances, and commercial market activities.

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 73 LAND

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74 STRATEGIES

PROPOSAL 3. PRODUCTIVITY

Rental schemes as social enterprise

Many individuals do not have the capability or willingness to enter the BM Programme. There is a lack of opportunities for temporary immigrants or migrants to rent a house, and as a result they are squatting in the central areas of the city. Others are reluctant to join the Programme because they are afraid of getting into debt without having another means of increasing their incomes.

At the community level, this could be solved through rental schemes in the form of an ongoing social enterprise as demonstrated in Figures 4.8 and 4.9. Recently there was a new scheme developed in the Programme that was established in the rural Chom Pare community in Khonkaen Province. It will be important that this

LAND

scheme is further developed so that it could be expanded and applied to communities in urban areas.

Initially investing money in building rental facilities and later collecting the revenue represents an option for communities to reduce its debt to CODI. This proposal is also suitable for areas with high migration rates such as Rangsit and Bang Pu. It would not only provide housing opportunities, but facilitate social integration of migrants as well. We do however recognize that this process cannot only be community driven — there is a need for a migrant policy at the city level or at least at municipal level in most affected areas such as Rangsit and Bang Pu.

Figure 4.7 Existing rental units overlooking the Khlong Toey market demonstrate a rental demand in the Bangkok metropolisPhoto by Silvia Chi


LOAN LOANWELFARE

SERVICESLOANWELFARE

SERVICES

BUSSINESS FUND

Figure 4.8 Rental SchemesThe diagram shows that by communities investing together in potential rental locations within the site, the return can be used towards community based activities or maintenance costs.

Figure 4.9 Intensifying Rental Schemes: As the community enterprise grows it can improve the social and spatial conditions of the community

76 STRATEGIES

4.2.2 STRENGTHEN NETWORKS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE SHARING PROCESS

In order to empower communities and individuals, knowledge has to be communicated and exchanged in a transparent and effective manner. Communities can take advantage of their existing assets, thus providing community members with the opportunity to learn from past experiences, knowledge, skills, and capabilities (See Figure 4.11). Although many of the communities we visited have adopted a highly effective means for knowledge sharing (See Figure 4.10), there is still a demand for a more efficient scheme that would provide better distribution of problem solving approaches and issue based information.

The main actors involved in the implementation of the following proposals would be the community and NULICO. Most of these proposals would be implemented at the community level. NULICO aims to connect various communities who are in process of undergoing the BM Programme. Further, NULICO has initiated a forum on their site to exchange information between communities. These strategies aim to enhance networking at different scales as well as the upgrading process at large.

KNOWLEDGE





Figure 4.10a

Figure 4.10b

Figure 4.10c

Figure 4.10d

Figure 4.10a- 4.10d Community members and leaders in Bang Pu participating in issue based meetings and design workshops with regional community leaders and MSc BUDD and UDP students.

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 77 KNOWLEDGE

Figure 4.11 Networks at ScaleDiagram representing the community networks at different scales. Working from community to community, community to metropolitan scale of Bangkok, and to the national scale reaching Thailand.

78 STRATEGIES

PROPOSAL 1. SKILL BANK

In examining a number of communities undergoing the BM Programme, there is a great variety in their level of organization. Some of them have been successful in sharing knowledge and collectively improving their communities. Through community collective action, this scheme illustrates how people can work together and invest time and effort in exchange for a greater benefit. However, in some communities there is an abundance of skills, but a lack of community networking among members. This has resulted in a lack of productivity within the community and has isolated them from creating collaborative relations and knowledge sharing with other communities.

Skills Bank is a strategy designed to pool resources where communities have access to the services they need and in exchange offer a skill of their own such as gardening, cooking, or building. This exchange is done through a mediator that connects participants together based on their demands and capabilities. Every individual in the community is registered with what they can offer, as well as what they need in terms of skills and services; tangible and intangible. A community credit system is also adopted. Through the mediator, a skill holder is linked with the recipient based on whatever service that can be provided and on that basis earns credit with the Skills Bank (Lets link UK, 1991). The participant can then use earned credit on a skill or service that is offered in that scheme.

Figure 4.12 diagrams how people connect with each other through their skills. One side of the box illustrates their desired skill or service, while the other illustrates what they can offer. The skill holder connects on one side with the skill receiver, while on the other side connects with another desired skill as shown in figure 4.14, which also illustrates how different skills banks from different communities can connect for a wide pool or resources.

Bringing this proposal on a larger scale, mediators of each community Skills Bank can connect their pool of resources together and link individual needs and capacities across communities. These networks could eventually extend beyond BM communities to address vulnerabilities of those

KNOWLEDGE

Figure 4.12 Diagram of each participant in the skills bank

Figure 4.13 Diagram of each community skills bank hub linking to other skills bank hubs from other communities

Figure 4.14 Illustration of individual participants in relationship to each other

excluded from the services provided by the city. In a time where traditional crafts are diminishing, it is more important than ever to find ways to safeguard communities from turning away from ancient skills and sacred traditions. The Skills Bank presents the opportunity to share knowledge across communities and generations.

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 79 KNOWLEDGE

Figure 4.15 Sharing skills: Bow tie making

Figure 4.16 Sharing skills: Carpenter Figure 4.17 Sharing skills: Belt making

80 STRATEGIES

PROPOSAL 2. COMMUNITY RESOURCE NODE

Through the observation and evidence gathered from the field, it is demonstrated that capacity of design to act as a tool to improve the living conditions of these communities is not being fully explored. This is where the community architect could be part of a process of production of knowledge that engaged the community in the process of design. For example, in our fieldwork, in the Khlong Mai Tai community, a workshop was conducted to share information about the logistics of a survey that proved that the cost of construction could be reduced by 50,000 Baht if recycled materials were used.

The proposal

The Community Resource Node is a structure composed of a team of practitioners, community architects, and academia that gives technical support to communities on the most pressing issues they identify. The practitioners also facilitate the communication within each community as well as among the members of different communities from different districts.

Furthermore, these practitioners act as facilitators in the decision making process by giving informed advices on specific matters, such as design solutions, finance, agriculture, environmental issues, recycling options, etc.

The Community Resource Node would be initiated at the community scale. Each node would then connect with the others and create a wider pool of resources: a network of Community Resource Nodes would be created at the district and metropolitan level, allowing room for communities to share successful as well as unsuccessful practices of how singular cases faced and eventually solved particular issues they had to deal with, in order to be able to adopt a solution that best fits community’s conditions and collective needs.

This proposal gives the opportunity for people to express their physical housing problems and discuss design solutions. Figures 4.19, 4.20 and 4.21 illustrates the type of suggestions or informed design solutions that are discussed in those community resource nodes. Use of space is a wide issue, for example, since people in

many of the communities visited are already experts on efficient use of space. These design recommendations take these capabilities to another level, where people can utilize the space for community meetings, markets, and community theatres.

Implementation on site

Community Resource Nodes would arise from the recognition and improvement of existing informal and fragmented practices of knowledge sharing already in place. The existence of such practices partly relies on the activity of NULICO network of communities and partly on the figure of community architects.

The scaling-up of these scattered practices into a formal hub for the creation and sharing of knowledge on technical matters would occur with the inclusion of universities, through specific educative programmes for the training of young community architects, financial advisers, agriculturalists and so on, as well as through more advanced research programs. CODI would also play a role, mainly in the initial phase, in terms of facilitating the connection between the actors, but may drop out once the network is strong and able to rely on itself.

KNOWLEDGE

Figure 4.18 Community architect facilitating informed knowledge sharing on design solutions


Figure 4.19 Optimising the use of communal spaces within community for group meetings

Figure 4.20Optimising the use of communal spaces within community for commercial and market activities

Figure 4.21Optimising the use of communal spaces within community for community theatre and arts activities

82 STRATEGIES

PROPOSAL 3. CREATION OF CHANNELS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

The following strategy proposes to enhance networking at different scales, resource management and finally to address the documentation and dissemination of information related not only to the upgrading, but other lessons learnt among the communities. The latter will be implemented through a multimedia library where communities will have access. This would work as a hub where they can see what other communities have been doing and what issues they had faced to learn from them and to identify solutions or potential improvements to their community, through channels of communications.

Figure 4.23 represents a proposed community library where archives of different communities are stored through different medias for easy access by all people. Figure 4.22 illustrates the ‘information hubs’ within the districts and the exchange of resources and knowledge on the wider city scale addressing issues and lessons learned throughout the different communities undergoing or have already undergone BM Programme. These hubs are accessible by all people and can also offer information to people

KNOWLEDGE

who don’t know much about BM and how to connect with other communities.

The main actors in this process would be NULICO, who has interest in the information exchange and who represents the wider scale, and the community who represent issue based groups at the micro scale. Other actors such as, the media, local authorities, ACHR, and academia are already documenting a large amount of sites, which could set a precedent for this scheme. As community residents who have already completed upgrading and know best what the experience entails, they are better placed to inform their counterparts than government bureaucrats who view things from afar.”(Archer, 2010)

The process will primarily start within the district and branch out to the wider city scale. The use of mix-media such as video, cartoons and recordings will help deliver the message to all members of community in terms of addressing members with illiteracy or other disabilities.

Figure 4.22 Diagram illustrating different community libraries connecting together on a wider city scale


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84 STRATEGIES

4.2.3 DECREASE VULNERABILITY OF COMMUNITIES BY EXPANDING ACCESSIBILITY TO ALTERNATIVE FUNDING

Cooperatives form the basis of the BM Programme. In order for communities to join the Programme, they must form savings groups beforehand. In 2008 when CODI’s funds dried up and there was no money to loan out to new projects, communities saw the importance of having CDFs in order to establish financial independence as well as help others in need.

FINANCE

“The GHB finances CODI to provide loans for low-income communities gathered under

savings groups. These are the borrowers and CODI evaluates their ability to repay in the long term. CODI charges a two per

cent interest to the groups and they charge a six per cent to the individuals interested

on taking loans. The margin is used by the saving groups mainly to develop a welfare

system within the communities.

The main difficulty is that cheap funds can only come from the government basically

from tax money. The market is not able to do that because the operational costs and risks are too high. Then, the main issue is to use

tax money wisely as CODI is doing.”

-Kitti Patpong-pibul, Chairman of the Housing Finance Association in Thailand

Photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani Photo by Silvia Chi

As shown in the photos in Figure 4.24 demonstrate how Baan Mankong communities are organising and administering funds within the savings groups.

Figure 4.24 Savings across communities


Photo by Farida Farag

Photo by Elian Pena

Photo by Noor al Ghafari

Photo by Noor al Ghafari

Photo by Elian Pena

Photo by Farida Farag

86 STRATEGIES

PROPOSAL 1. BOOSTER FUNDS

The Booster Fund is a community collective fund that enables the poor of the poor to access the BM Programme through a form of welfare in order to reach the 10 % of the total amount they need to join. The residents of the community would pool together their resources to help excluded households to join the Programme. In return, these members would have to offer a service to the community, rather than having a 4 % interest per annum, as in the CDFs. The Booster Fund would expand upon the existing CDFs as alternative sources of funding. This would act as a mechanism to empower the communities, by reducing their vulnerability and integrating them into the larger collective network.

As illustrated in figure 4.25, in order to support marginalized community members, the sponsors (i.e other community members) may at their own discretion give more money to the savings groups to allow those marginalized to be part of the upgrading scheme with the rest of the community. Through the joint input of the community, those who are excluded are given the chance to join BM Programme, as illustrated in figure 4.26. In return, those financially supported members will offer a service to their community in return, for example gardening, to pay off that “loan”.

A similar example was conducted in the Samki Ruam Jai (SRJ) Community. “The community savings group in SRJ has a welfare program, which was financed partly by member contributions (in which each member puts in 1 Baht every day) and partly from a portion of the

interest margin the community earns on CODI housing loans (we borrow from CODI at 2% but on- lend to families at 6%), and this added margin supports most of our community activities, adds funds to our welfare program, and provides a buffer fund to take care of repayments in cases where individual members have problems repaying.” (ACHR, 2008) SRJ is an important reference as to how community savings groups are addressing reoccurring financial challenges from an effective and new position.

The main actors involved in the implementation of this process would be the community and NULICO. The criteria of this strategy requires that households be in close proximity to the community being upgraded and that their own savings groups should be formed to contribute an affordable amount and to demonstrate their ability to self-organize.

The first stage of the process depends on the length of time it takes to raise enough money to reach the 10 % needed to join the BM Programme. These members will continue to be supported by welfare, until their debts are paid, but are still expected to contribute whatever they can, as well as provide a service to the community that is supporting them. NULICO will act as an agent to spread this practice across the communities to have a simultaneous development.

FINANCE

Figure 4.25Illustration of marginalized community member in relationship to the rest of community in terms of booster loans or services.


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4.2.4 DEVELOP ALLIANCES AMONG THE ACTORS TO OPTIMISE THE CAPACITY OF NEGOTIATION AND TO REDEFINE RESPONSIBILITIES

The basis of the BM Programme is a community driven process addressing specific social, physical and financial needs. This approach is effective in its nature and the fact that they are providing their own services can help build the community’s capacity and ability to self-organize, as well as open a space for participation in the decision making process. However, this also represents a risk of instrumentalisation of the communities, so there needs to be a balance of power between the local authorities and the communities.

The city planning and the development of mega-projects that have a major impact across different scales and actors also requires a further engagement of all of this actors that are being impacted, in a new definition of their roles in the decision making process. Figure 4.27 exhibits actors across scales and roles within communities and influencing communities in transformation.

ALLIANCE

Figure 4.27 Space for Negotiation: Community Members and Leaders across Bangkok

“Citizens ‘should be able to choose freely the conditions of their own association’

and determine the ‘form and direction of their polity’. This implies certain rights and obligations from the side of citizens and ‘a common structure of political action’ that is

‘a “neutral” basis of relations and institutions which can be regarded as impartial of even-handed with respect to their personal ends, hopes and aspirations’”. (Held, 1995: 153-6)

(Patomaki, 2003: 349)

90 STRATEGIES

PROPOSAL 1. REDEFINITION OF ROLES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

In order to address these concerns, the role of the stakeholders must be redefined to have a more responsive system of governance. The aim of the initiative is to include the communities affected by the city planning in the decision making process. This proposal will help to bridge the gap between top-down and bottom-up strategies through the effective transfer of knowledge and information.

Furthermore, this would re-involve the state and others actor to participate in community mobilization and capacity building. The local authorities must enhance their own capacity to provide effective solutions and basic services to the communities. In order to ensure the future success of this initiative, it will be important to create a platform that monitors and evaluates the community governance system.

At the city level, the City Development Committee (CDC), which is comprised of representatives from the municipality, the community, CODI,

universities and experts, creates space for negotiation and acts as a neutral third party while still maintaining the insight given by the different actors involved (See Figure 4.28).

The role of the CDC needs to be redefined and their responsibilities expanded. Furthermore, involving other actors depending on the nature of the situation can also increase the capacity of this committee. A methodology to monitor and evaluate the community governance system can be created with the help of the CDC.

Additionally, within the Committee, communities and local authority can negotiate and balance areas of responsibility, priorities and implementation of strategies and visions from the community to citywide level. Finally, with this strengthened partnership, the community could be able to negotiate and find alternative solutions for multi-scalar conflicts at the national level.

ALLIANCE

Figure 4.28 Bridging mechanics which connect Top Down (Blue) and Bottom Up (Orange) Agendas and Governance.


Figure 4.29 Combining top down plans with community input in Rattanakosin Island within national level conservation planning

92 STRATEGIES

4.3 SYNERGIC CONNECTIONS BETWEEN STRATEGIC PROPOSALS

The added value of the individual proposals tackling land mechanisms, network knowledge management, funding issues and possible alliances at city level, lies in the potential of not only complementary but synergic reinforcements between them. As such, these connections can multiply strategic effects over time and scale:

Rental scheme as social enterprise (Land) - Booster Fund (Finance)

The rental schemes will provide revenue to reduce its debt to CODI, which will strengthen the capacity to access land and housing. Moreover, the capital going back to the community savings groups will reinforce the booster fund.

Community Resource Node (Knowledge Network) - Land

The Node can help provide technical support for land strategies, i.e. advise how communities could shift their approach for housing towards densification to fit with the urban grain, suggest ideas to increase the productivity of interstitial spaces or help develop skills to manage the rental scheme.

Multimedia Library (Knowledge Network) - Land

Document all the land negotiation methods to distribute them to other communities.

Alliance - Land

Providing the space to discuss the role of actors by involving the community in the planning process can support negotiation for the use of interstitial spaces and institutionalize bottom-up densification schemes.

Knowledge Network to Alliances - Alliances to Knowledge Network

The Node can use the Multimedia Library as a repository of individual skills at local community and district level to distribute innovation, intervention and experiences city-wide. The cooperation of the Node and CDC (a platform that involves professional and academic experts as well as authorities representatives) will provide a dynamic mechanism that can distribute knowledge between all levels.

Also, involvement in the Node activities is a way to expand CDC’s role and responsibilities in balancing community tasks. Through multidimensional networking, this three-partite system will enhance horizontal as well as vertical knowledge sharing.

SYNERGIES


DENSITY: Increasing density for better

affordability and accessibility

PRODUCTIVITY: Rental schemes as social enterprise

INTENSITY: Increasing productivity of

interstitial spaces

Creations of Channels of Effective Communication

Bank of skills

COMMUNITY Resource NODE

Redefinition of roles and areas of responsibility

BOOSTER FUNDS

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94 STRATEGIES

4.4 DE-CODI-NG STRATEGIC PROPOSALS To evaluate if the strategies here proposed are reaching the predefined transformation goal of social justice, the interventions’ social and spatial outcomes need to be tested against a set of criteria assessing changes in power relations and improved knowledge sharing over scale and time.

Clearly, none of the proposals alone can and is meant to address the full transformation process. They were however envisioned to tackle most pertinent issues (as identified in the diagnosis) at different scales. Only the combination of all proposals can possibly ensure the fulfilment of the development goal.

As shown in the de-codified representation of the proposals’ assessment, even though the set of actions meant to re-shape financial policies, land and knowledge management are successful to some extent, they can only reach their full transformative potential if supported by the active involvement of the usually marginalized in the decision making process. The appropriation of political space is the ultimate result of the demand driven paradigm shift.

this pageFigure 4.30 Assessment of proposals: top to bottomCombination of Land strategy proposalsCombination of Knowledge proposals

next pageFigure 4.31 Assesment of Land proposalstop to bottomIncreasing density for better affordability and accessibility Increasing intensity of interstitial spacesIncreasing productivity: Rental schemes as social enterprise

Figure 4.32 Assessment of Knowledge proposals:top to bottomSkills BankCommunity Resource NodeChannels of Effective Communication

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Figure 4.34 Assessment of Alliance proposalsRedefining Roles

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Figure 4.35 Assessment of Proposals:Combination of all proposals: Land, Knowledge, Finance, and Alliance Strategies

REFLECTIONS

“Slum is not in the people, it is in the system” -Somsook Boonyabancha

Photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani


REFLECTIONS

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5.0 REFLECTIONSWe came to Bangkok as a collective of urban practioners, aiming to connect our theoretical analysis with a field based understanding of urban transformation. Our time in the field led us to learn of extraordinary examples of social mobilisation, where communities joined together to build an entire house in one night, or exhibited such dedication to building their community network that they would travel for days just to be included in the NULICO meetings.

Our ideas of transformation were greatly influenced by our time spent in the field. We saw that design is part of a collective process of promoting urban change across actors and scales. Visiting communities in various stages of the Baan Mankong Programme, allowed us to see how communities change before, during and after their involvement in the Programme.

We saw that design cannot stand alone, it must be linked with both top-down and bottom-up processes that are working to address urban inequalities. For example, even the most inspired design strategies must be supplemented by municipal policies that expose obstacles and address vulnerabilities, at the local and metropolitan level. But, perhaps more importantly we learned that social mobilisation and space are profoundly interrelated. For the case of the Baan Mankong Programme, the establishment of community networks is an integral aspect of reaching scale. In our time in the field our

perspective shifted from a more spatial analysis to recognizing how communities organize and knowledge production is an underlying driver of sustained change.

On the community level, it became clear that in order to create effective change, whether that is through our proposals for alternative housing typologies or participatory planning practice it is important to develop interventions that are part of a continuous process of change. We recognize that the Baan Mankong Programme is an ongoing process and our proposed intervention is addressing one specific moment in time.

In the field, our design responses led us to consider the various challenges of urban practitioners such as — how are we meant to shift our spatial strategies to better respond to more embryonic programmes, versus programmes that are much more mature and have been part of urban processes for many years? And, how is it possible to be part of propelling long-term sustainable change if the design intervention is only taking place in a specific moment in time? In response to these questions our interventions aimed to be catalytic in nature, seeking to leverage community based initiatives and link our design strategies with ongoing community goals. By relating spatial strategies with participatory processes of local knowledge production, we seek to promote initiatives that would become embedded in wider movements of change.


As urban practitioners we recognize that the challenge of promoting change on small and large scales calls for a responsiveness that is currently not possible in many existing legal, political and economic frameworks. These systemic and political limitations make it difficult for spatial strategies to be implemented and sustained over time. In Bangkok, we found that the points of insertion and the room of maneuver for spatial interventions to be significantly influential and involved in the continuous process of urban transformation are highly limited.

Further, it is difficult to determine how it is possible for the participation of architects, landscape architects and urban designers to be fully embedded in the processes of urban change. While we acknowledge that limitations within current frameworks are significant, we recommend that the greater empowerment of design is not only essential for urban livelihood and organizational purposes, but because design thinking teaches people to reinterpret existing problems and develop solutions that were previously inconceivable. Like the multiplier effect created through social mobilisation and the production of knowledge — we recognize that design thinking could re-shape normative ideas of knowledge shareing or how spatial transformations are being approached.

To conclude, our field-based study of urban change had a transformative effect on our outlook as practitioners. Our fieldwork in Bangkok was both provocative and transformative — it left us changed, but it also left us with larger curiosities and bigger questions. We saw that the roles of the urban practioner and the community are evolving. These changes in both the outlook of the practitioner and the participation of the community are placing bottom-up pressures on existing frameworks and normative development practice.

In examining the future planning of Bangkok, not only in terms of space but also in terms of cultural identity and economic livelihood it would be interesting to consider the larger implications of bottom-up movements and informal productivity. We found that self-motivated productivity creates a dynamic quality to the city, giving a temporal identity to each space where movement and change is the only constant. This seems to be an integral aspect of the culture of Bangkok and an essential element in promoting urban livelihoods. In looking to the future we would be interested in better understanding the larger implications of informal productivity and how this could relate to the process of reaching scale.

102 REFLECTIONS

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106 REFERENCES

6.1 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Envisioning transformationFigure 1.2 Community mobilisation issue based presentation (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 1.3 Community leaders participating in the feedback (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 1.4 Figure 1.3. Somsook Boonyabancha participation in our presentations in Bangkok Figure 1.5 Rangsit site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 1.6 Bang Pu site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 1.7 Pasi Chaloen site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 1.8 Rattanakosin Island site presentation by BUDD and UDP MSc students

Figure 2.1 Envisioning the transformation definitionFigure 2.2 Criteria and Indicators for our definition of transformationFigure 2.3 DECODER: a methodological tool to assess transformational processesFigure 2.4 An example of how the DECODER worksFigure 2.5 Ideal situation: transformational processes result in social justiceFigure 2.6 Visual recording of the sitesFigure 2.7 Site visitsFigure 2.8 InterviewsFigure 2.9 Final presentation with the communities

Figure 3.1 Megainfrastructure and housing in Koh Klang Klong Pra Ka NhongFigure 3.2 Drivers of change and pressures on BangkokFigure 3.3 Touristic activities in the central area of Bangkok, Rattanakosin Island Figure 3.4 Coexistence of slums, mega projects and new developments in Klong ToeyFigure 3.5 Actor timelineFigure 3.6 Actor mapping before BangkokFigure 3.7 Actor mapping after BangkokFigure 3.8 Main actors in the national levelFigure 3.9 Main actors in the metropolitan levelFigure 3.10 Main actors in the district levelFigure 3.11 Main actors in the community levelFigure 3.12 Location of the 6 sites within Bangkok regionFigure 3.13 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Bang Khen districtFigure 3.14 View from Bang Bua canal (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure 3.15 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Bang Khen district Figure 3.16 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Khlong Toey districtFigure 3.17 Khlong Toey: spatially fragmentatedFigure 3.18 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Bang Khen district Figure 3.19 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Pasi Chaloen districtFigure 3.20 The community leaders of the district plays an important role facilitating comunication within and between the communities

6.0 REFERENCES

FIGURES INDEX


Figure 3.21 Funding Mechanism of Sirin and Friend Community in Pasi Chaloen (photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro) Figure 3.22 Funding Mechanism of Ra-Sri Tum Community in Pasi Chaloen (photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro)Figure 3.23 Problems and opportunities within Pasi Chaloen districtFigure 3.24 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Rangsit municipalityFigure 3.25 Rangsit position in Bangkok peri-urban area Figure 3.26 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Rangsit MunicipalityFigure 3.27 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within the Bang Pu municipalityFigure 3.28 Floating platform used for public gathering in Bang Pu municipality. (photo by Parvathi Nair)Figure 3.29 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Bang Pu MunicipalityFigure 3.30 Location of the communities visited and significant elements within Rattanakosin islandFigure 3.31 The pictures on top illustrate the problems and opportunities of the chart within Rattanakosin IslandFigure 3.32 Shack by the canal in Bang Khen. (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure 3.33 A bridge in Bang Khen community: an example of community mobilisation to fullfil the role of the municipality (photo by Mayha Fatemi)Figure 3.34 View from the Klong Toey District Authority buildingFigure 3.35 The main issue in Rattanakosin Island concerned the lack of willingness of CODI to start or help facilitate negotiation with the Temple land to include the poor communities in the BM programme. (photo by Dhrin Anantamongkolchai)Figure 3.36 View of the port in Khlong Toey. The communities have little power to negotiate with or influence the Port Authority in terms of Land Tenure and the pressures of the Global City Competition master plan (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 3.37 Land speculation spurred by the majority of private ownership in Rangsit with plans to develop private residential units restricted negotiation for the price of land (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)Figure 3.38 Different communities in Rattanakosin Island are facing the same problems in terms of the tourist and master plan; however they have no forum to discuss for collective solutions. ( for more information refer to Annex page 141) 9Photo by Dhrin Anantamongkolchai)Figure 3.39 Interstitial spaces in the city (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 3.40 Bang Pu Community workshop Lack of networking within Bang Pu as community members were not acquainted with one another and one of the community was not aware of the different strategies that BM Programme offers to address their housing problem in terms of upgrading.( Refer to Annex page 154 for further detail on community workshops held in Bang Pu)Figure 3.41 Rangsit community building. (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)

FIGURES INDEX

108 REFERENCES FIGURES INDEX

Figure 3.42 Rangsit community homes in progress. (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)Figure 3.43 Walkway through Pasi Chaleon (photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro)Figure 3.44 Pasi Chaloen housing design can be addressed through an efficient design response. (Refer to Annex page 136) (photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro)Figure 3.45 Khlong Toey open spaces The prevalence of interstitial spaces in Khlong Toey presented for a fragmented urban fabric where there were disjointed pockets of unused space (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 3.46 Key for the cubes in the graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities across the six sitesFigure 3.47 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about NETWORKS across the six sitesFigure 3.48 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about ACCESS across the six sites Figure 3.49 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about RESOURCES across the six sitesFigure 3.50 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about KNOWLEDGE SHARING across the six sitesFigure 3.51 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about DESIGN across the six Figure 3.52 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about ROLES AND NEGOTIATION across the six sitesFigure 3.53 Graphic synthesis of problems and opportunities about PARTNERSHIPS AND INFRASTRUCTURE across the six sites (explanatory chart in the next page)Figure 3.54 Summary of problems and opportunities across the six sitesFigure 3.55 Multi scalar entry points of analysis diagram ( see next page for key and explanation)Figure 3.56 Key of the Multi scalar entry points of analysis diagram ( previous figure, page 60)

Figure 4.1 Strategic Vision: “Build a strong network of communities able to negotiate their spaces of participation in a political arena”Figure 4.2a Community over water in Bang Pu (photo by Noor Al Ghafari)Figure 4.2b Land to be developed in Pasi Chaloen (photo by Jennifer Cirne)Figure 4.2c Canal community in Bang Bua (photo by Noor Al Ghafari)Figure 4.3 Illustration of how half the amount of money can be used to purchase land by increasing density. Figure 4.4 Representation of how density can provide housing, social and livelihood responses in restricted land availability or more opportunities of land for various communities. Figure 4.5 Interstitial space under raised houses used as community space.Figure 4.6 Land adjacent to communities used for community activities.Figure 4.7 Existing rental units overlooking the Khlong Toey market demonstrate a rental demand in the Bangkok metropolis (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure 4.8 Rental Schemes: The diagram shows that by communities investing together in potential rental locations within the site, the return can be used towards community based activities or maintenance costs. Figure 4.9 Intensifying Rental Schemes: As the community enterprise grows it can improve the social and spatial conditions of the communityFigure 4.10 Community members and leaders in Bang Pu participating in issue based meetings and design workshops with regional community leaders and MSc BUDD and UDP students.Figure 4.11 Networks at Scale: Diagram representing the community networks at different scales. Working from community to community, community to metropolitan scale of Bangkok, and to the national scale reaching ThailandFigure 4.12 Diagram of each participant in the skills bankFigure 4.13 Diagram of each community skills bank hub linking to other skills bank hubs from other communitiesFigure 4.14 Illustration of individual participants in relationship to each other

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 109 FIGURES INDEX

Figure 4.15 Sharing skills: Bow tie makingFigure 4.16 Sharing skills: CarpenterFigure 4.17 Sharing skills: Belt makingFigure 4.18 Community architect facilitating informed knowledge sharing on design solutionsFigure 4.19 Optimizing the use of communal spaces within community for group meetings Figure 4.20 Optimizing the use of communal spaces within community for commercial and market activitiesFigure 4.21 Optimizing the use of communal spaces within community for community theatre and arts activitiesFigure 4.22 Diagram illustrating different community libraries connecting together on a wider city scaleFigure 4.23 Community library where archives are stored through different mediasFigure 4.24 Baan Mankong communities are organising and administering funds within the savings groupsFigure 4.25 Illustration of marginalized community member in relationship to the rest of community in terms of booster loans or servicesFigure 4.26 Illustration of before and after effect of the Booster Fund proposalFigure 4.27 Space for Negotiation: Community Members and Leaders across BangkokFigure 4.28 Bridging mechanics which connect Top Down and Bottom Up Agendas and GovernanceFigure 4.29 Combining top down plans with community input in Rattanakosin Island within national level conservation planning Figure 4.30 Combined Assessment of proposalsFigure 4.31 Assessment of Land proposalsFigure 4.32 Assessment of Knowledge proposalsFigure 4.33 Assessment of Finance proposalsFigure 4.34 Assessment of Alliance proposalsFigure 4.35 Assessment of Proposals: Combination of all proposals

Figure 5.1 Our view of Transformation before Site AnalysisFigure 5.2 Our Paradigm Shift of Transformation post Site AnalysisFigure 5.3 On Site Transformation

Figure A1.1 Interview at Baan Ban Khen Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.2 Skilled female construction workers on U tid a nusorn community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.3 Interview at Bang Bua Community Centre (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.4 Building material survey on Krong Lumpai communityFigure A1.5 Mapping the process of reblocking on Krong Lumpai community Figure A1.6 Group Presentation for Krong Lumpai BriefFigure A1.7 A barber shop attached to a house before upgrading in Sapan Mai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.8 Use of space in a house before upgrading in Sapan Mai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.9 Use of space in a house before upgrading in Sapan Mai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.10 Sketch of the use of space in the same house Figure A1.11 Nursery and Bang Bua Community Centre (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.12 Bang Bua Community CentreFigure A1.13 Ongoing constrcution work in Krong Lumpai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)Figure A1.14 Plan of the new BM Programme house in Krong Lumpai Community

110 REFERENCES

Figure A2.1 Movement of people through the Khlong Toey Market (Sketch by Sadiqa Jabbar)Figure A2.2 Koh Klong Pra Ka Nhong Community ( photo by Farida Farag)Figure A2.3 Klong Toey Market 24/7 (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure A2.4 Ruam Jai Pattana Community (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure A2.5 Communities under the railway ( photo by Farida Farag)Figure A2.6 Family cleaning fish in Penang community, where livelihoods are focused around market activities (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure A2.7 Interview in community member’s home discussing how design of the house affects the temperature within the home. (photo by Silvia Chi)Figure A2.8 Drawing showing community how ventilation can work better in a community home (sketch by Silvia Chi)Figure A2.9 Koh Klang Klong Pra Ka Nhong community interview (photo by Silvia Chi)

Figure A3.1 Sirin and friend community (photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro)Figure A3.2 NHA programme (photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro)Figure A3.3 Design proposalsFigure A3.4 Policy advisor for Klong Lad Pha-Shi communityFigure A3.5 DPU meeting the communityFigure A3.6 NHA programme (photo by Azzurra Muzzonigro)Figure A3.7 Notes on Baan Mankong and NHAFigure A3.8 Design principlesFigure A3.9 Design principlesFigure A3.10 Notes on Klong Lad Pha-Shi community

Figure A4.1 Nimit Mae Community (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)Figure A4.2 Chareon Sin community Children (photo by Katja Starc)Figure A4.3 Community leader describing the pressures of the metropolis on Rangsit (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)Figure A4.4 Sketch of existing Chareon Sin community and relationships Figure A4.5 Slum behind Macro moving in 3 stages, community member sketching (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)Figure A4.6 Sang San Communty Housing Construction in progress (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)Figure A4.7 View form Khlong sawaan Canal Communty (photo by Katja Starc)

Figure A5.1 Design participatory workshopFigure A5.2 Space between houses (photo by Parvathi Nair)Figure A5.3 Design principle workshop (photo by Parvathi Nair)Figure A5.4 Design principle workshop (photo by Noor Al Ghafari)Figure A5.5 Design principle workshop (photo by Elian Peña)Figure A5.6 Recyclable construction material workshop (photo by Parvathi Nair)Figure A5.7 Recyclable construction material workshop (photo by Elian Peña)Figure A5.8 Recyclable construction material workshop (photo by Parvathi Nair)Figure A5.9 Ta-bae ka mai second hand woodshop (photo by Josue Robles)Figure A5.10 Ta-bae ka mai second hand woodshop (photo by Josue Robles)Figure A5.11 Diagram of built form and usage Figure A5.12 Diagram of built form and usageFigure A5.13 Diagram of built form and usageFigure A5.14 Survey of recyclable materialsFigure A5.15 Second hand market value

FIGURES INDEX

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 111 FIGURES INDEX

Figure A6.1 Contrast between slum, mid-class, and temple/tourism (photo by Jose Di Girolamo)Figure A6.2 Narrow pathway in community (photo by Su-Ann Tan)Figure A6.3 Self-designed houses (photo by Jose Di Girolamo)Figure A6.4 Community by riverFigure A6.5 Detailing of existing houseFigure A6.6 Contrast between slum and palace (photo by Jose Di Girolamo)Figure A6.7 Improvised kitchen at historic wall (photo by Su-Ann Tan)Figure A6.8 Wall between community and city (photo by Dhrin Anantamongkolchai)

112 REFERENCES

6.2 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Angel, Shlomo & Somsook Boonyabancha. ‘Land Sharing as an Alternative to Eviction: The Bangkok Experience’, in Third World Planning Review, Vol. 10, No. 2, May 1988, pp, 107-127. (http://web.mit.edu/urbanupgrading/upgrading/issues-tools/tools/Reg-of-land. html) Accessed 10 January 2010

• Archer, D.A. (2010) Empowering the Urban Poor. ISOCARP Congress. P. 1-11. Available from: [www.isocarp.net/Data/case_studies/1648.pdf]

• ACHR (2011) The Asian Coalition for Housing Rights [online]. Available from: http://www. achr.net/ [Accessed: 6th June 2011] • Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, ACHR. (2008). A Conversation About Upgrading at Bang Bua. ACHR [online](September). P. 1-10. Available from [http://pubs.iied.org/G02376.html]

• Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA). ‘Third ACCA Program Committee Meeting’, Surabaya, Indonesia, 24-26 October 2009.

• Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). ‘Evictions in Seoul, South Korea’, in Environment & Urbanization, Vol. 1, No. 1, April 1989, pp. 89-94.

• Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). ‘Housing by People in Asia: Community Funds’, No. 14, February 2002, 32 pages. (http://www.achr.net/ACHR%20newsletter%2014%20with%20photos.pdf)

• Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). ‘Housing by People in Asia’, No. 13, June 2001, 36 pages. (http://www.achr.net/ACHR%20Newsletter%20No%2013%20with%20photos.pdf)

• Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). ‘Negotiating the Right to Stay in the City’, in Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 16, No. 1, April 2004, pp. 9-26.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook. ‘Baan Mankong: Going to Scale with “Slum” and Squatter Upgrading in Thailand’, in Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 17, No. 1, April 2005, pp. 21-46.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook for UN-HABITAT. ‘Community Development Fund in Thailand: A Tool for Poverty Reduction and Affordable Housing’, Nairobi, 2009. (http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/getElectronicVersion.asp?nr=2782&alt=1) Accessed 31 January 2011.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook. ‘How Upgrading of Thailand’s Informal Settlements is Spear Heading a Community-Driven, City-Wide, Integrated Social Development Process’, a paper presented at the Arusha Conference, New Frontiers of Social Policy, Arusha, Tanzania, 12- 15 December 2005.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook. ‘Land for Housing the Poor – by the Poor: Experiences from the Baan Mankong Nationwide Slum Upgrading Programme in Thailand’, in Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 21, No. 2, October 2009, pp. 309-329.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook. ‘Scaling Up Slums and Squatter Settlements Upgrading in Thailand Leading to Community-Driven Integrated Social Development at City-Wide Level’, a paper presented at the Arusha Conference, New Frontiers of Social Policy,

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Arusha, Tanzania, 12-15 December 2005. (http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTRANETSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/Resources/ Boonyabanchapaper.rev.1.pdf) Accessed 31 January 2011.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook, ‘The Causes and Effects of Slum Eviction in Bangkok’, in Shlomo Angel, Raymon W. Archer, Sidhijai Tanphiphat and Emiel A. Wegelin (Editors), Land for Housing the Poor, Select Publications, Singapore, 1983, pp. 254-283.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook. ‘Upgrading Thailand’s Urban Settlements: A Community- Driven Process of Social Development’, in Caroline O. N. Moser, Caroline Moser & Anis A. Dani (Editors), Assets, Livelihoods, and Social Policy, World Bank Publications 2007, pp. 195-214, available online (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bia- DERFf6IC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=fal se) (Enter page 195) Accessed 31 January 2011.

• Boonyabancha, Somsook. ‘The Urban Community Environmental Activities Project and its Environment Fund in Thailand’, in Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 11, No. 1, April 1999, pp. 101-115.

• Bruneau, Michael. “Mode of Production and Spatial Organization in Thailand: Process and Trends”, in Antipode, Volume 14, Issue 1, April 1982, pp. 1–10. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8330.1982.tb00014.x/pdf) Accessed 03 February 2011

• CODI (2011) Baan Mankong Collective Housing [online]. Available from: http://www.codi. or.th/housing/ [Accessed: 5th June 2011]

• Daniere, Amrita & Lois M. Takahashi. ‘Poverty and Access: Differences and Commonalities across Slum Communities in Bangkok’, in Habitat International, Vol. 23, No. 2, 1999, pp. 271-288.

• Derrida, J. (1997). The Politics of Friendship. Verso: London

• Foucault, M. ( 1995) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage

• Held, David (1995). Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance. Oxford: Polity Press.

• Jenks, Mike. ‘Above and Below the Line: Globalization and Urban Form in Bangkok’, in The Annals of Regional Science, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2003, pp. 547-557.

• Khan, Shahed Anwer. ‘Attributes of Slums Affecting their Vulnerability to Eviction: A Study of Bangkok’s Informal Settlements’, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 6, No. 1, April 1994, pages 25-39

• King, Ross. ‘Bangkok Space, and Conditions of Possibility’, in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol. 26, 2008, pp. 315-337.

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• Lefebvre, H. (2003). The Urban Revolution University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis/ London

• Manickam, Nadarajah. ‘Meditations on Culture, Cosmology and Sustainability in Asia’, in Are We Up to the Challenge?: Current Crises and the Asian Intellectual Community, The Nippon Foundation 2008, pp. 238-250.

• Mcleaod, R (2011). “Humpty Dumpty “, lecture notes distributed in the topic BENVGBU4. University College London, Building on 28 February.

• Mitlin, Diana. ‘Civil Society and Urban Poverty – Examining Complexity’, in Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 13, No. 2, October 2001, pp. 151-173.

• Mitlin, Diana and David Satterthwaite. ‘Strategies for Grassroots Control of International Aid’, in Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2007, pp. 483-500.

• Mitlin, Diana & David Satterthwaite. ‘The Role of Local and Extra-Local Organisation’, in Diana Mitlain and David Satterthwaite (editors), Empowering Squatter Citizen: Local Government, Civil Society and Urban Poverty Reduction, Earthscan, London 2004, pp. 278- 306.

• Nathalang, Sowatree. ‘Rangsit in Transition: Urbanisation and Cultural Adaptation in Central Thailand’, a paper distilled from the PhD thesis, Macquarie University, Sydney 1999. (http://std.cpc.ku.ac.th/delta/conf/Acrobat/Papers_Eng/Volume%202/Sowatree.pdf) Accessed 31 January 2011

• NESDB (2011) National Economic and Social Development Board. [online] Available from: http://www.nesdb.go.th/ [Accessed: 8th May 2011]

• Patomaki H. (2003). Problem of Democratizing Global Governance: Time, Space and the Emancipatory Process, European Journal of International Relations. Vol.9(3): pp. 347-376.

• Rabinow, P. (1984). The Foucault Reader. Penguin Books: London

• Ranciere, J. (2010). Dissensus. Continuum: New York

• Rawls, J. ( 1999) A Theory of Justice. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

• Sintusingha, Sidh. ‘Sustainability and Urban Sprawl: Alternative Scenarios for a Bangkok Superblock’, in Urban Design International, Vol. 11, 2006, pp. 151-172.

• Sirisrisak, Tiamsoon. ‘Conservation of Bangkok Old Town’, in Habitat International, Vol. 33, 2009, pp. 405-411.

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK 115 BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press: Oxford

• API Fellows (2005-2006). Are We Up to the Challenge?: Current Crises and the Asian Intellectual Community. [Online] Available from: http://www.api-fellowships.org/body/ international_ws_proceedings/year5.pdf#page=264 [Accessed: 31st January 2011]

MOCK-UP IMAGEFigure A1.0 A view of the Bang Bua Canal (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

dpu | budd | field trip report BANGKOK A116

A1.0 BANG KHEN annex

annexBANG KHEN

BANG KHEN: InterviewsINTERVIEW 1: GROUP Community leaders of the six sites within Bang Khen district (16 women and 15 men):

• We believe that BM programme is not about building your own house but it is about helping others to have a house as well. We do our best to manage our time and contribute to the programme as much as it is required. We all know that each of us have to sacrifice something to be a part of this programme but we are fine with this because after all what makes a sense of community are these sacrifices by the members. Some of us work nearby so we can come to the community centre if they need us during the day. Some others who own a business like a shop ask their family members like their spouse or their children to take care of the shop while they are here. So far we have never had problem with time and volunteer work issue.

• Most of the members of this district are government employees, cleaners, waitresses, construction workers and owners of small stores.

• The highest income within this district is about 50,000 TBH and in the lowest is about 10,000 TBH.

• The ones who work for the government are more secure in terms of paying their loan because they have a secure job and they can count on the total income in advance.

• They formed the network of Bang Bua Canal in 1999. At first only 6 communities were involved in this network but now this network is active beyond this canal.

• After they cleaned the canal they recycled the trash that they had removed from the canal and then they sold the trash and managed to buy a boat for the community with the profit

• They applied for their own city fund not from CODI because they criticize the procedure of applying

• For CODI fund as it is rigid and they don’t want to have lots of paper work. They are demanding a more flexible process. City Fund can act as a short cut for communities. In some cases the CODI funding is not enough for finishing the house and there are people in this community who could not manage to finish their houses.

• The Sky Train Project is a threat for one of the communities it is the main reason for eviction of about 45 houses. They are fully aware of the project so they are considering relocation as an option but still trying to negotiate with developers because the last station would occupy their land so they are still hopeful to be able of changing it. They are still fighting for it.

• In this district there are two leaders for each community: one as community leader and the other one as BM programme leader. Although in most cases these two leaders work perfectly together there are some cases where there is conflict between the two leaders.

INTERVIEW 2: A female Community Leader

• In the past some families who did not have access to water used to collect water when it rained. They even used the water from the canal for drinking. They used to boil it first and it was considered to be clean.

• 13 years ago they paid to have access to water through water line system. They had to pay for their own pipes and taps. Not all of them were directly connected to the water line.

• 3 years ago the government announced that if the monthly water consumption of a family is less than 80 units they would be exempted from paying the water bills but this community could not benefit from this scheme.

• Instead of having access to the main water line a family had the main access and 3 or 4 other families were connected to the main connection so actually 4-5

• families were using the main access and therefore their monthly consumption was more than the announced amount. Collectively all these families had to pay about 1000 Baht to the family who owned the main access.

• Before the waste water used to be directly poured into the canal but after the BM programme they installed water waste tanks and they use grease filter to collect the waste oil and they sell it to the military for production of Bio Fuel.

ANNEXES BANG KHEN


INTERVIEW 3: A female Ban Mankong progarmme leader • If some community members do not join the

program because they are worried of being in debt or do not have enough saving we try to help them by the welfare fund so they can also join but in cases when they don’t trust the program, if they are not acting as an obstacle to the process of upgrading we will just ignore them and sometimes they join later when they see the tangible outcomes of the program. In cases when they have the money but will not join and are an obstacle in the process they the community will put pressure on them and if they are land owners sometimes we even take them to court.

INTERVIEW 4: GROUPA young Ban Mankong leader & young social entrepreneurs sponsored by Unltd

• We are aiming to set up a construction company and a home service center that gives maintenance and repair service to the communities with a cheaper price they want to share constrcution knowledge within the communities to reduce the costs as well. We have being cheated enough by engineers. the workers employed by this center would be all local.

• We want to build this portfolio within these communities and then scale up this in other projects like NHA. So far there are 100 local builders and 5 teams of these builders have been active beyond the boundry of Bang Bua.

INTERVIEW 5: GROUPA female Community Leader

• we have been living on this land for more than 70 years. We had to negotiate our land with the treasury department. After getting the land we did a survey and found out that the mentioned land is too small for these number of households. So people decided to build a high rise building. As CODI was not sure about going vertical we used the bridge funding of CDF to start the project. We think that they hesitated because they were worried that people cannot pay the debt as it would be more expensive to build a high rise.

• When it came to allocation of different floors to different families the community decide to have the first floor for handicapped, elderly and shops.

• and then the rest of the families chose the rest. As there would be no lift available for the building the higher flats would be cheaper.

• They are building studio flats and families who do not fit into one studio flat must save for two studios next to each other. They are building 44 studios in this 4 storey high rise. They know that they had some other options when it comes to design they could not afford the other alternatives.

• During the process one family decided to resign Figure A1.1 Baan Ban Khen Community describing the plan of the high rise building (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

from the programme. The community members decided to pay a bit more on behalf to have a shop instead and then benefit collectively from the shop when the construction is over.

INTERVIEW 5: GROUPA thai architect student on the site

• I have never been in a slum before and had no idea about the scale of BM programme. As an architect I am not fond of working as a community architect. I prefer to work for a consulting firm where I can work on architectural projects.

• I think generally reconsideration of the building code and having exceptional building codes for these communities who are in the BM programme is not fair for others who are not involved with this programme because after all it is a project by the government and others are still stuck with the existing strict building codes.

INTERVIEW 6: GROUPAn old lady in his BM programme house

• The whole process of construction for the new house lasted for a month. Chang Chumchon assisted them in construction of this decently spacious house.

• The amount of repayment is fine for this family. An extended family lives in the new house as they were living together before upgrading.

• Before upgrading whenever it rained their house would be flooded due to the rise in the water of the canal.

• There is not a public space in this community but as the community has been living on this land for a long time they know each other quite well and the door of the houses are always open and people interact with each other quite easily. What they demand is a play ground for children within the community.

INTERVIEW 7: GROUPLocal Authority

• Local authorities have monthly meeting for flood prevention but there is no budget specifically al-located for disasters. They have a prevention plan and the police is another actor when it comes to flooding.

• 5,000 TBH is given to the community by the local authority per month for administration cost.

• 2.000 TBH is given to the community for garbage collection by the local authority

INTERVIEW 8: GROUPLocal University

• Rajabhat Phranakhon University is directly in touch with BM programme community leader. It is an informal collaboration between the community

Figure A1.2 Skilled female construction workers on U tid a nusorn community working on a row house project (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)ANNEXES BANG KHEN


Figure A1.3 Sample model in Bang Bua Community Centre used in explaining the design phase (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

and the university. Their communication is through meetings with the communities

• This university is running a cultural centre built by Chang Chumchon.

• The university design training courses after receiving community requests. They send their trainers to the community if needed.

INTERVIEW 9: GROUPSapan Mai Community members

• They had a wooden bridge that used to act as the main entrance to this community that is located alongside the canal. They asked the government to replace this bridge but it took 4 years and nothing happened and the community decided to start collecting donation by the community members, visitors and even other communities to build a new bridge. The bridge is under construction.

• They would like to have the first floating market in the area.

BANG KHEN: BriefPresentation Based on the brief given by community leaders in Bang Khen we were asked to look for alternative options for reducing the cost of construction within this district. This community is seeking for methods to reduce the cost of construction or alternative funding for housing loans. In order to do so we had to work in Krong Lump-ai community. On this site there was a house under construction where we had the opportunity to talk to the builders and also the owner. The group mapped the re blocking process on this site and did a survey for listing the construction materials before and during the upgrading.

Considering the data that we gathered on the site , the group had the following suggestions that were simply presented to the community the next day in simple sketches:

1. Cost saving by reusing the construction materials:Background: Materials costs are more than half of the cost of the projects. Reusing some materials have assisted some families to reduce the cost of construction and keep the overall costs below the loan amount. Idea: • Organizing a categorized material yard as a

material bank • Selling recycled materials through the network-

sUtilizing the networks or other organizations (CODI, NHA, Chang Chumchon) to buy materi-als when opportunities are present

2. Incremental construction idea: based on the rise and fall of material costs the construction can take place in different phases. You can build when material is cheaper or when materials are present in the material bank.

3. Bulk buying Background: Bulk Buying allows the communities to minimize the costs Idea:Buying in bulk through the existing networks and keeping the materials with the suppliers to collect them later when you need them on site4. Knowledge sharing Background : one family saved 80,000 THB by using a new material called Shera. They learned about it by chanceIdea:Looking for alternative materials and partnerships related to materials ( e.g. Architecture and Civil engineering departments at universities)5. Integration with the spatial transformation processBackground:Though CODI as monthly visits the last time CODI architects visited the site was in 2007, the same design of 2006 is being used today on this site and there are challenges in implementing that design Idea:• Community apprentice can start working

with CODI architects to gain experience and carrying the process through

• Reassessment before every phase of construction (design, material, cost )

Figure A1.4 Sketch of building material survey on Krong Lumpai community

Figure A1.5 Mapping the process of re blocking on Krong Lumpai community

ANNEXES BANG KHEN


Figure A1.6 Sketches used in Group Presentation for Krong Lumpai Brief

Figure A1.7 A barber shop attached to a house before upgrading in Sapan Mai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

Figure A1.8 Use of space in a house before upgrading in Sapan Mai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

ANNEXES BANG KHEN


Figure A1.9 Sketch of the use of space in the same house

BANG KHEN: Use of Space Use of Space During the site visit of Sapan Mai community we had a chance to go inside some of the house that were a part of BM programme but were not yet upgraded. Figure ? shows the use of space within this household. The family livelihood is based on a barbershop that is located inside their house without any wall or partition separating it from their living space. Having similar shops attached to houses is quite common in this district.

BANG KHEN: Videos Visiting Bang Khen communities this group has recorded some videos that can be accessed through the following links:

• Bang Bua Canal 1:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkUGdUhYVlg

• Bang Bua Canal 2:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCzLuhstRSs

• Singing at Bang Bua Community center:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu55j54NBDo

• Walking in Krong Lumpai Community:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZGuHmCqcDs

Figure A1.10 Use of space in a house before upgrading in Sapan Mai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

Figure A1.12 Sketch of Bang Bua Community Centre

BANG KHEN: Bang Bua Community Centre

This building is being used by the communities in Bang Khen for several activities. We mapped out the following activities:

• Meetings of the communities, committees and other subgroups like housewives groups

• Kitchen for the catering service of the housewives • Nursery funded by ActionAid • Administration office for the community and BM

programme leaders• Accommodation for visitors • Sports – there are some sport facilities in the open

space• A place for selling the community products like

T-shirts, perfumes and washing liquids • Community Celebrations • Informal gathering of the community for singing or

even watching TV together• Training courses for the community

Figure A1.11 Nursery and Bang Bua Community Centre run by ActionAid (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

ANNEXES BANG KHEN


BANG KHEN: Krong Lumpai visiting an ongoing construction

Project information:

• Scale of household: 5 • Number of workers required: 5 • Project time: 1 month/ 8 hrs per day• Number of floors: 2 • Number of Bedrooms: 2 • Structure: Concrete • Distance with the canal edge: 40 minutes• Recycled items that have been used: wooden

frames for doors and windows• Amount of load: 150,000 TBH • Additional fund required for finishing the

house: 24,000 TBH• Last visit of CODI architects: 2007• Contractor: CCC

Figure A1.13 Ongoing construction work in Krong Lumpai Community (photo by Sepideh Hajisoltani)

Figure A1.14 Plan of the new BM programme house in Krong Lumpai Community

Figure A2.0 Khlong Toy (photo by Silvia Chi)


A2.0 KLONG TOEYannex

ANNEXES KLONG TOEY

annexKLONG TOEY

KLONG TOEY: InterviewsINTERVIEW 1: GROUP Sang Sun Phatana community

Q: How did your community reach consensus and negotiate land tenure?

• Some people decided to stay and refused to relocate to this plot (the current one) and kept negotiating with the port to get an alternative land. Each one we picked, the port did not grant us. This current land was offered because it used to be where a private company stored its containers. As the contract with the private company had expired the port gave us the land.

• They gave us a 30 year rent to be renewed every 3 years. But if the port wants the land back, we will have to get relocated again.

Q: Is the community worried about this possible threat of eviction?• No. the area is still registered as a residential

zone, so technically the port cannot take it back

and use it. Also, the community is still in debt after upgrading their homes, and so they cannot be relocated.

Q: What was the impact of relocation on people’s livelihoods?

• It helped them be in a better living environment and motivated them to do something for the community.

• Earlier people didn’t have bills or loans to pay. When they started BM programme, more people had to get jobs, including women who opened shops selling food or merchandise.

Q: What is the relationship between this community and the adjacent one, which is not part of BM?• They had a very bad relationship at first, because

while this community was upgrading their ground level raised and that affected flooding in the adjacent community, which is next to the canal. Water stayed on their side and flooded their homes. Later on that community asked municipality for a wall to be built by the canal to keep their part

Figure A2.1 Movement of people through the Khlong Toey Market (Sketch by Sadiqa Jabbar)


of land from flooding. Even though this affected community is not supported by CODI, they still managed to get that wall/barrier built.

INTERVIEW 2: GROUPRim Klong Wat Sapan community ( not part of Baan Mankong)

Q: Why can this community not join BM?• They can’t because they don’t have secure tenure

because the port owns the land and is not willing to negotiate.

• The port knows they are living in that land and is trying to be blind about it, as they don’t have function for it at the moment. But every year they go to this community and remind them that they will be evicted whenever the port demands the land.

• The port wont allow them to be part of BM because it’s a permanent long term process

• Some households don’t want to join BM at all because it will make them reorganize plot size, so some might end up with smaller plots. Others just don’t want to be in debt and have to repay loans.

Q: How did the upgrading of the adjacent community (part of BM) affect this community?• They kids now use the public space and playground

of the upgraded community as well as hold events there and meetings together.

INTERVIEW 3: GROUPInterview with Ruam jai pattana community

Q: Who designed the houses and what was the role of the architect?• The architects were involved in dividing the

plots. CODI architects gave the design and the community agreed to it. In reality when they started building them, everybody did their own thing and only one house actually followed that model.

• Observation: houses had limited design response and were not in favor of the community. People did not follow any design guidelines or building codes. The port allowed them to do that.

• They did not use CODI money but used their own savings and external funding. The loans they got from CODI was used for infrastructure only.

Q: How did the community change after BM programme?• They had a better moral but it is still hard to get the

people involved. The number of people employed is still the same and has not changed after the upgrading.

INTERVIEW 4: GROUPMeeting at the District office:

Q: What is the vision for the Klong Toey district?• Because the director is new in the district office,

the personal vision is no just to build for the people but it is important to get people to participate and do it themselves. People would be much stronger t

Figure A2.3 Klong Toey Market 24/7 ( photo by Silvia Chi)

ANNEXES KLONG TOEY

due to their strong networks and experience with gaining the knowledge they need. In terms of physical upgrading, the port in the future would be collaborating with the district in favor of the people’s wellbeing.

Q: What are the problems and opportunities faced?• The biggest problem is the communities on the port

land. It’s hard to do any physical changes because port has more power and controls decisions.

• The district office wants to be part of the environmental change: providing more public spaces while having more participation from the people.

Q: What is the status of the port’s Mega Project and how does it work?• They think it would be hard to implement. It’s still a

plan and it depends on the government. This might change depending on the next government. There are also some plans on making the district green and many organizations are proposing parks to the area.

Q: How do you see the decentralization movement? What capacity do they have?Some duties have been transferred to them form ministries. They are in charge of taking care of welfare now, as well as education and quality control. The ministries wanted to send more people to work but the people don’t want to work in the district office and so they’re moving around to avoid working with the district.

What about housing and land?

• City planning development of the BMA is being taken care of here at district office. BMA releases the zones and the district office builds and takes control. There’s a city planning department controlling development projects small in scale. If the scale is too big, the BMA takes control of it.

Q: How are they dealing with the challenge of slums of the Klong Toey district?• The big issue is that people don’t want to move and

there’s nothing they can do but be in the middle supporting the people and improving current conditions. But overall they have to listen to the port. Eviction is still on.

Q: What has been the experience of the district office in dealing with eviction?• People used to relocate on private land and got

evicted. They district office helped people in the process and negotiated land by NHA but it’s far away by the airport, which people refused to relocate to.


Figure A2.5 Communities under the railway ( photo by Farida Farag)Figure A2.4 Ruam Jai Pattana Community ( photo by Silvia Chi)

Figure A2.6 Family cleaning fish in Penang community, where livelihoods are focused around market activities (photo by Silvia Chi)

ANNEXES KLONG TOEY

Q: What is the role of the district office in that process?• Quality control, send garbage collectors in the

green spaces in the city, and use the fresh garbage for compost.

• It is part of the policy of the BMA to make more green spaces. Bangkok is growing and they think improving health is a priority and so green spaces are very important. Earlier, people used to travel outside of Bangkok to use green open spaces.

INTERVIEW 5: GROUPMeeting with the leader of the market unionKlong Toey Market (biggest market in Bangkok, 24/7)

• The owner of the land is the port who has given the concession of the land to a private investor. The private investor rents to the vendors the “space” for their stalls. An area of 2x2 (4sqm) cost about 60,000 Baht per year. The vendors also pay for garbage collection 50Bath per day. There are 5000 registered stalls.

• The area of the market is an attractive point for migration, because the job opportunities and the exchange and delivery of goods from all Thailand and some adjacent countries. Therefore, the area has a strong present of rooms for rentals.

• There is a high concentration of livelihoods in the market, and its specialization ( there are products from all the country, organized by provinces) is an allure for many restaurants and hotels of all Bangkok.

• Even when the market has been there for 14 years, there is a risk of eviction because the port has a development plan for the area, but as in other areas of Klong Toey, this risk has been there since the beginning of the market.

• The surrounding area also has a political connotation, is where the bigger demonstrations take place.


Figure A2.9 Koh Klang Klong Pra Ka Nhong community interview (photo by Silvia Chi)

Figure A2.8 Drawing showing community how ventilation can work better in a community home (sketch by Silvia Chi)

Figure A2.7 Interview in community member’s home discussing how design of the house affects the temperature within the home.(photo by Silvia Chi)

Figure A3.0 Sirin and friend community ( photo by Azzura Muzzonigro)


A3.0 PASI CHALOENannex

annexPASI CHALOEN

PASI CHALOEN: InterviewsINTERVIEWS DAY 2: By Amrita Koonar

INTERVIEW 1: Name Pranee (f) Age 52

[There are 4 people in the household and 3 of them work; there will be work for them at the new site]She has lived in the area for 20 years, she is moving to the new site because her current landlord has given her notice to leave the house which she rents; he has allowed her to stay until the Ban Mankong project is complete and she is able to move to the new house.

Q: How was the monthly payment for the savings group decided at 3000bt per month?A: The amount was calculated before she joined the savings groupQ: Were people unable to join the savings group due to the amount of monthly payment?A: Yes, some people could not join, and 5 people

dropped out of the savings group because they could no longer afford the payments.Q: How long have you been saving?A: 8 monthsQ: Do you want to move?A: I like living hereQ: Do you know other people that are moving to the new site?A: Yes, there are some others moving Q: Have you visited the relocation site?A: Yes I have visited the siteQ: How did you get there?A: I travelled by carQ: How was the monthly installments amount decidedA:The payment was decided by the committee and CODIQ: Do you ever meet with the savings group and if so what do you discuss?A: Yes we meet once a month to talk about the project and what will happen.

ANNEXES PASI CHALOEN

Figure A3.1 DPU meeting the community


Figure A3.2 NHA programme ( photo by Azzura Muzzonigro)

INTERVIEW 2: (M) Occupation – Taxi Driver

Q: How long have you lived in this house?A: 3 years, but I don’t own the house. It is rented from the owner. He does not live in the area anymore.Q: How much rent do you pay each month?A: 4000bt per month. I also pay for my own electricity and water.Q: What do you like and dislike about living here?A: I like living here because I know everyone, I am happy to live here but it’s too quiet.

Additional:The owners tend to work most of the day and just come back here at night to sleep.In general the community is for low to middle income people. The people in the community have come here from different areas/ provinces.

INTERVIEW 3: (F) 18 years old

Q: How long have you lived here?A: I was born here and have lived here all my lifeQ: Do you go to school?A: No, I am not educatedQ: What do you do in the day?A: Nothing much.Q: How many people live in your house?A: There are 2 peopleQ: How many bedrooms are there in your house?A: There are 2 but it’s flexibleQ: Do you go out of the community?A: Yes, I go around the site but I don’t really leave the area.Q: Is there a hospital nearby?A: Yes there is a clinic but its private. I go to the government hospital which is free.Q: How do you travel outside of the community?A: I walk or ride a motorcycle.

INTERVIEW 4: (F)Home owner Runs general shop from front of the house

Q: How long have you been living here?A: I have been here for 2 years, but the project started 5 years ago.Q: Why did you move here?A: There was a fire at my old house and I was moved here by the government. Q: Did you know anyone else when you moved here?A: No, I was the first from my old community to move here and I didn’t know anyone. Now more people from the old community have followed. Q: Was this shop here when you moved, or did you open it yourself?A: I made this shop to earn money; I also sell sea food from here in the evening. Before I moved here I was a trainee pharmacist.Q: Did you get permission from the local authority to open the shop?A: No I didn’t get permission from them but I pay 900bt a year in tax.

Figure A3.3 Design proposals

Figure A3.4 Policy advisor for Klong Lad Pha-Shi community



Figure A3.5 NHA programme ( photo by Azzura Muzzonigro)

INTERVIEW: Community Leader at Site 4

• Recycling project – people sell their garbage at a market every Sunday, they are not given any money, but useful items such as a broom.

• Not many people have joined the savings group yet but they are advertising through posters and trying to get people to join. The group is open for anyone in the district with a problem to join

• They are relocating from Temple land to Temple land 20 km away. The yearly lease will be 200bt per household.

• Livelihoods will be established at the new site through markets, sewing workshops etc…

• There are currently 80 people in the savings group. 1080 people in the community.

• They haven’t yet negotiated housing design with the L.A yet.

• They are not able to make changes to the house/extend… if they need a bigger house they will have to buy a bigger one elsewhere.

• Some people are being evicted from their current residences- also temple land and some people are choosing to move so they can have larger homes which they will own.

• Outside space has been factored in to the design, they have a large plot of land to allow for communal areas , livelihoods, kindergarten.

• They are allowed to run businesses from home, selling food, laundry services etc…

• Savings group – they save 3000bt per month, this can be done through installments, throughout the month.

• 250,000bt for building the house including decoration – of that 65,000 goes to the contractors (labour)

• If people have trouble saving money – there is a penalty fee, although this is never enforced. 5 people have left due to being unable to pay.


Top Figure A3.6 Notes on Baan Mankong and NHA Bottom Figure A3.7 Design principles


Top Figure A3.8 Design principles Bottom Figure A3.10 Notes on Klong Lad Pha-Shi community

Figure A4.0 A view from Chareon Sin, a canal community in Rangsit(photo by Katja Starc)


A4.0 RANGSIT annex

annexRANGSIT

RANGSIT: InterviewsINTERVIEW 1: PANEL Municipality Meeting

The main issues identified at the meeting are: • Local authorities don’t communicate between

each other horizontally • No policy to deal with migrants• Large scale infrastructure coming from the

provincial level, indicates that it is very top down• Land speculation and majority private ownership• No program for the CDF in municipality• Political pressure on municipality- low income

on the media campaigning against eviction has caused some issues on specific sites

• Land tenure and insecurity • Municipal Pawn Shop as a mechanism for

payments at Low interest rates is of high interest• Sustainability program; question whether

municipality or community driven• They implement the Creative “city” as a strategy

for creative “economy”

INTERVIEW 2: GROUPNimit Mae

• Nearby site relocated as a result of a fire. • Middle low income community has several

community members also working for the municipality.

• They chose the land layout themselves and the plots are detached or semi-detached

• housing units. • There is a large community area in the center that

is utilized by some local craftsman• Many plots have only a small of amount of

construction that has been left. This is a result of a community policy that if no development occurs within the year, the land will revert back to the community.

• The mayor helped knock down the price of the land for the community and the municipality contributed to the infrastructure. The land was previously private land that was purchased with the assistance of CODI.

Figure A4.1 Nimit Mae Community (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)

ANNEXES RANGSIT


INTERVIEW 3: GROUP Rattana Pathum

• There are 82 households in this community that is currently in “phase 2” of its nearby relocation.

• Currently located above a linear drainage canal, this community has purchased land immediately adjacent to the site.

• The plan includes having a community area in the middle of the site for laundry like activities.

• While the site is extremely close to the existing site, but not located close to any other communities or amenities.

• The construction underway will be 8 months in total. As the market is currently favorable for those building in the community, they have hired a private contractor to carry out the construction with a community member on site to supervise.

• The contract also has flexibility in their payments and is backed by CODI.

Figure A4.2 Chareon Sin community Children (photo by Katja Starc)

• The sanitation will be maintained by the community after construction.

• The design of the homes itself also considered frequent flooding on side- with raised foundations as well as a flexible design for a shop in the front of the home.

INTERVIEW 4: GROUP Sang Saan

• This community was unique as it is a nearby relocation of 4 communities pulling together to purchase the land.

• The land used to be agricultural land before the community began building. First savings group started in 2003, and building began in 2008.

• CODI funding is going towards the site’s community center.

• As it was four communities merging into one, there were different saving levels before BM programme started and therefore flexible repayment.

• The homes are being built on a 15 year mortgage, with 2500 Baht per month for the entire community land payment. Solid waste is managed by the community.

• As a community they are currently sharing expertise with outside construction workers and making their own concrete block for construction.

• Additionally they want to access the adjacent NHA land housing to share their daycare facilities.

• The housing typologies onsite are detached, semi-detached or 3-in-a-row houses. Like other sites for relocation, their criteria for site selection was 4 elements: proximity to original site and job, proximity to schools, price and access.

INTERVIEW 5: GROUP Site Workshop with Chareon Sin Community

• 65 households live in this canal community located on Department of Irrigation and school land.

• The community wished to start onsite upgrading but has been struggling to coordinate the savings groups of all households in the community.

• This particular community is very dense on 5 RAI2 and has been living there for 75-100 years.

• Many community members are families. • The focused issues of the community are the risk

of flooding, sanitation concerns with the canal, and lack of access into the site.

• They are hoping to negotiate with the landlord by taking care of the canal in exchange for tenure.

• Currently the landowner doesn’t desire developing the land, however this relationship is subject to change.

• They wish to raise their houses to deal with the flooding issues.

• Canal is no longer a viable connection to the greater community as dams have blocked off their use and access.

• Other issues related to this site are why their previous involvement in the programme began in 2004 and then stopped in 2006.

INTERVIEW 6 GROUP Slum behind Macro site

• The largest slum in Rangsit, this community of Figure A4.3 Community leader describing the pressures of the me-tropolis on Rangsit (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)

ANNEXES RANGSIT


Figure A4.4 Sketch of existing Chareon Sin community and rela-tionships

over 400 residents has lived here for over 20 years and entered the BM Programme in 2005.

• The landlord on this site notified residents in 2009 that they would be developing this central site into private residential units and have until the end of 2011 to move.

• Due to its size, residents have been relocating in 3 “phased” savings groups, some to the Sang Saan community.

• The relationships with the landlord on this site, while tense has been facilitated by the building of a “negotiation” facility on-site to allow households to meet with the landowner.

• The landlord has marked the homes with a number in 3 colours to indicate: blue (negotiated) red(not move) or white (empty).

• NULICO and local government officials have• become involved to help persuade other houses to

join the programme and assist in relocating.• Local NGO’s have been working on this site with

youth programmes as well.• Very small community centers and a few shops

are located within the site for gathering. • Loudspeakers placed throughout the community

as well helped organize the community and activities.

• Once residents have relocated, their plots are completely demolished and marked to prevent other residents or migrants from taking over their sites.

• In the BM scheme, they are saving 200Baht a month per household in order to relocate.

INTERVIEW 7 GROUP Train Community

• There were 117 households under threat of eviction notified in October 2010 by a large banner placed on the site telling residents to move.

• State railways hired private consultants to negotiate with the community, as it has existed for 20 years.

• The community had already joined BM in 2008 at the encouragement of local authorities to start

• funding.• Four Regions NGO, geared towards railway

squatter communities, has been assisting 15 households to date in the community.

• They have been working with CODI as the NGO has land to accommodate 40 households.

• Recycling activities are the main source of income, and stable for most community members.

INTERVIEW 8 GROUP Fahmaisival Community

• This community has a cooperative relationship with the municipality who is asking them to relocate as part of a canal beautification system.

• They are relocating nearby to a community being built on treasury land.

• The community started saving a year a

• go 600Baht/month per household.• The housing are being constructed by the

municipality, they had no say in the design on the site and two choices offered.

• They can make changes to the inside to a certain extent- as it is limited by cost.

• As a community, they are responsible for paying for the infrastructure on site, which they are connecting directly to the municipal provided infrastructure for the other portion of the site, and they are the first community that will relocate there.

• Community members felt the process was too slow, and too much bureaucracy. Most community members are content with the houses being built.

• There is a programme within the community to train member in different skills and trades.

• There is a successful programme for Thai massage training that many women in the community have participated in.

Figure A4.5 Slum behind Macro moving in 3 stages, community member sketching (photo by McKenzie O’Neill)

INTERVIEW 9 GROUP Khlong Sawaan Community

• The land is owned by the Department of Irrigation and the community is struggling with their existing lease agreement.

• While before the landowner agreement was acknowledged, as more migrants came into the community, and greatly increased the size of the community, the Department of irrigation will no longer acknowledge the agreement.

• The community has done some basic upgrading, but not been able to get funding from CODI as their tenure is not secure.

• They are also hesitant to pursue tenure agreements with the landowner now as becoming officially recognized also puts them at risk.

• Generally, the elders on side are included in the social welfare program of the municipality and are very attached to the land has they have been there for many years.

ANNEXES RANGSIT


Figure A4.7 View form Khlong sawaan Canal Communty (photo by Katja Starc)

• Younger generations seem to lack interest in the site and are not as attached as the older community members.

• The community is unique in that is says it is not part of any network unlike most other communities visited.

Figure A4.6 Sang San Communty Housing Construction in progress(photo by McKenzie O’Neill)

Figure A5.0 Design participatory workshop (photo by Elian Peña)


A5.0 BANG PUannex

annexBANG PU

BANG PU: InterviewsINTERVIEWS DAY 1: By Felipe LarachINTERVIEW 1

• They are living there since 50 years. • Main occupation is fishing, selling of food and

factories. • They are not immigrants• One year ago the treasury department told them

that they have to leave and they began the saving group.

• They have to save 10% • They have a verbal agreement with treasury

department but cannot sign the agreement until they get into BM

• When they were notified the network approached them and that is because they knew that the eviction was affecting the communities around.

• There were people who didn’t want to join BM so they will move the day that they will be evicted.

• 50 households and 200 people in 5 sub-groups. • Only 3 poor households couldn’t join the BM

because they • The proposal was made by the CODI-NETWORK

to present the cooperative to the authorities. • 2 design of 3 offered were selected by community. • The layout of the new community was not yet in

production. The first to reach 10% choose the first house. But if someone has less than 10% and other has more, while they have the 10% as community they are ok.

INTERVIEW 2: Old couple that are not in BM

• They have lived there all their life, namely natives. • They have 4 children• Their job was daily workers, but now they don’t

work and their children support them.• They were very afraid with the eviction because

they didn’t know where to move. • They knew that was real when some official came

to measure the site. • Their children will join the programme and they

will go to live with them. They are the one who participate in the programme.

INTERVIEW 3: Lady with 4 children

• Her daughter has the right and they will go live with her.

• They have lived there for 35 years. She move there when she got married.

• The first problem was this eviction. The rest is ‘just fine’

• She has been involved in BM although she cannot join the programme.

• She doesn’t believe in BM because is just starting. Maybe later....

• Minimal activities of BM yet. • Her husband worked renting a truck. • The whole family has to save 2.000 B. They parent

put 1.000 while the daughter put the other 1.000 B. • The BM reduced their monthly budget. It’s not that

they are working more. • Not a lot of participation yet in planning of BM

because it is in a previous stage.

INTERVIEW 4: Couple of factory workers.

• They have 3 children• Their parents built the house there because there

was vacant land. • They save 500-700 monthly to saving group. • Both of them together earn around 10.000 B• They relations with neighbourhood is relatives,

family or cousins. • They don’t have relation with other communities.

Only with other relatives. • They have to join BM because they didn’t have

another choice. • They involved in BM in march2010• They believed in BM because they went to visit

other communities and saw that was real and possible.

• They still don’t participate a lot in the process because it has not started yet. Just saving.

• The feel rural people. • They would prefer stay where they are. Not move. • Municipality is very supportive of them. • They buy food from the market or from the truck

that comes every day. They have electricity and water with meters.

ANNEXES BANG PU


Figure A5.1 Space between houses ( photo by Parvathi Nair)

INTERVIEW 5: Lady in the shop• She lives there since 10 years • Works every day from 6am to 8pm• She has two children. One finished the school

and is a driver and the other didn’t and works in a factory.

• She the best member of the community because she saves more than the rest. The earns around 12.000 monthly, where 10.000 is profit. 2.000 to saving group and the rest to the bank.

• She assist to all the meeting (every Sunday)• She has a lot of relations with other people because

the sells products. • Municipality support them. CODI only known

because the loan. • She feels urban not rural. • She would prefer to stay there and not move.

INTERVIEW 5: GROUP

• CODI is quite new for them• Before this eviction that have suffered from

eviction of landowners and authorities. But nothing serious. • The help each other with this network of communities (NULICO)

• They know each other due to community network. • Men are not in NULICO because they are in charge

of the income which WOMEN manage. • Women make BM possible• They know each other due to community network. • Men are not in NULICO because they are in charge

of the income which WOMEN manage. • They have reduced their budget to be able to save.

They use the BOOK KEEPING from CODI. • Community for them is: Brotherhood, participation,

help, support among community members, sense of unity, work side by side.

• In the participation they were offered a lot of templates but at the end only three of them fit the requirements of land and space.

• If they need infrastructure they go to the municipality to ask for it.

INTERVIEWS DAY 3 By Felipe Larach

INTERVIEW: Local Authorities

• Local Authorities are to support community mobilisation in the relocation and also act as a partner where all department of the municipality work together.

• The Municipality, CODI and the Community work as a triangle but the municipality is in charge of notification and eviction.

• Before BM the municipality’s roles was to support the infrastructure of the community.

• Statistics on the roads show that there is not a real impact of the airport. Only in the 2 street that are around the airport.

• Industrial area still growing.

the community as health and education. • They use to live in a bigger house but now they are

ok, They sign an agreement to not expand in order to preserve the environment.

• They are pushing their children to live outside this community.

• The cost of the house is 160.000 – 170.000 less the foundation because they come from the subsidy of infrastructure from CODI.

• They want to do maintenance of the house every 6 months to prevent termites.

• There is an agreement to not use the space between houses but some of them are using it to join the family in the next house.

• They will have a community centre near the shop. They also use a space between the community and street allowed by highway department.

• Time: It takes 1 month with a proper constructor. However, they only hire the constructor for foundations and frame. The rest it is made by themselves and it take finally like 4 months. Workers are hired from other communities and are paid.

• Bangkok is far away, crowded. • They transport in vans. • In the past their parents had relations with

communities. However they lost them due to urbanization. BM is allowing them to have again that relation.

• Local authorities help them in measures the sites. Before they felt as a barrier with LA. Today they don’t feel it.

INTERVIEW: Making the third survey. By Kitty Kam

Q: Since when have you lived here? How many people are there in your family?A: Both of us work in a factory. 3 children, the oldest is 13, today is holiday.Q:Did you build the house by yourselves? Why live in this area?A: When people came, they just looked for vacancy. They moved in the house more than 70 years ago. The house was their parents who passed it on to her. The river is not a canal but just water. The water has been blocked, so there is no way to get out. Now this level is at all the time.Q: What do you think about Bangton project?A: The member of Bangton project. They save 500 Thai Baht per month. But this month school starts so more expenditure for children. Income is over 10,000 Thai Baht. Q: What do children do after school?A: Nothing special since the project started. So there are not special activities for children.Q: Do children have places to go after school?A: Just paying around here. The children do not move out.

• The area might grow with the expansion of the road.

• They are moving officials to the area in order to decentralise the centre.

• They relocate them because they don’t have land. Also because is part of the development of the city to reorder the city. And finally because the royal treasury wants to use the land.

• Also because they didn’t have secure land they now have secure housing, secure basic services, and secure tenure for the next generation.

• Cannot relocate them in another place because they already have plans for that area. Also because there is a lot of bureaucracy in the government and lack of capacity. They are trying to deal with this bureaucracy.

• The Bang Pu municipality is part of the comprehensive plan of the district plan so they have influence but they don’t make the design of the plan.

• They don’t have to compensate them because they have been living there for many years without paying anything.

INTERVIEW to leader of other community:

• They have been living there for 80 years. 3 generations of family and relatives.

• A lot of people are waiting for expropriation in order to be paid but the rest think that that’s an illusions.

• They joined the programme in 2006. • They bring their food from the truck, from fishing

or market.• Their main occupation is fishing (15%), factories

(70%) and feed animals (fish) (15%)• The highway department notified them and they

started the savings group with the help of other communities.

• In the beginning only a few joined the programme (10/56). The others were not sure but after a while they joined the programme because they were receiving too many notification from highway department.

• They joined the saving groups of CODI with the help of others communities which have been trained them. They taught them how to save, how to make a cooperative, about the design of the houses, set the lay out.

• The role of women is making BM possible and help in the construction. The role of the men is to bring the income.

• The income is 10.000 B monthly• The most significant change has been to have

secure housing, secure welfare, self-sufficiency, and a network of friends (inside and outside the community) that allow them to have help, support materially when they don’t have enough money or materials for their houses.

• Their monthly payment is 1.700 which divides in 1.400 to CODI to pay the land and housing and 300 B for saving group which is used for the welfare of

ANNEXES BANG PU


Figure A5.2 ( photo by Parvathi Nair) and Figure A5.3 ( photo by Noor al Ghafari) Design principle workshop

Q: Is there any neighbour passing to another community?A: In the community, relatives know each other but in the past, they didn’t. Now, there is the network between them.Q: Saving for them is so difficult. What have they charged? What difficulty do they save? Do they keep records of what their saving?A: It’s hard. But they have to. No matter what they keep records for every member. Q: When did they start to save?A: Since March last year. Every family registered. They wanted to join in. Q: Does she believe in Bangton?A: Bangton project is a community that offers others. The project convinces of them. They are hard to believe.Q: How did they convince her to believe?A: At the beginning, no one believed that this project can be true. When they face threats, they pay more attention. Q: How do they feel about the connection with the outside world? A: Rural people love to live here. They feel like brothers and sisters, different social environment, and near the coast. Q: When did they move here? Did they feel change?A: No.Q: What is her role in Bangton?A: Years ago, she worked with her father in a farm but it didn’t work out. So she changed the job to a factory. No kids in school so they do not have a problem.Q:The house?A: The former house was not this size. They expanded. It is bigger than before. The bedroom is small. This is a relaxing space, children sleep in this room. They play in other place.

BANG PU: WorkshopThe Design Workshop

After two days of research and observation our group was eager to understand the relationship between the people and the spaces surrounding their homes as well as within their homes. In order to test our assumptions about the uses of these spaces, we conducted a workshop, which allowed us to capture a better idea of that relationship. This workshop is designed not only for our own personal information collection, but also for the community to realize the importance of the in between spaces in their community in order for them to have a positive influence on the design of their new homes in order to adapt it to their needs as individuals and as a community.

The First thing we had to do for this exercise was to produce a land use map. A few members of the group went around to map the physicality of the households from an aerial perspective with the guidance of a

Google map image. However this mapping process was not complete until the workshop started. The base map was made simple and adaptable to their corrections as well. We began to understand the uses of the spaces not only from our eyes but also from those of the residents.

The community was invited to participate primarily by identifying their own homes and those of their neighbors. Together they mapped out the locations of their home to familiarize themselves with the context of the map.

Once this part of the process was complete, the community was asked to take a piece of the provided paper and write different uses around their homes and neighborhood. This process didn’t include many men, but mostly women of all ages; from the very young, to the very old. There was a mix of personalities, some very eager and some very shy, but the energy remained enthusiastic and positive from the round table to the construction material-recycling workshop.

The Design Workshop: Findings • List of activities• Talking • Exercise• Swinging ad taking care of baby outside of the

home• Children Swimming• Eating• Washing and talking in front of home• Selling groceries in front of Home and talking

and sleeping on balcony• Talking and Watching Children• Children playing (many wrote this one too)• Drinking and listening to Music• Shopping• Meeting Community in Large open Space• Barber shop• Party • Washing

BANG PU: Recycling WorkshopThe Recyclable Construction Material Workshop

Surveys to 5 houses were conducted in the community of Klong Mai Tai. The survey strategy documented each household at tree levels; recyclable materials, built-form usage and social structure of the family. This approach allowed the surveying team to grasp and document the use and behavior of a number of dwellings of this community. The team developed a system to quantify and qualify the materials of each household. The list of construction materials were compared to their value at a second-hand wood market, Ta-bae Ka Mai market, to generate a value of each house’s recyclable construction materials available.

ANNEXES BANG PU

Figure A5.4 Design principle workshop (photo by Elian Peña)


In an effort to share the system and findings with the community members, the team suggested that a community workshop should be held.

The community workshop that was facilitated is composed of two parts; a design workshop and a recyclable construction material workshop. The workshop consisted of teaching the community how to conduct a housing material survey to see how much of their existing homes could be used towards the upgraded product. After having done a few examples, our group came to the conclusion that the cost of construction could be reduced at an estimated number of 50 000 BAHT (~1,030 GBP).

BANG PU: VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkV-SV0atGA

Figure A5.5 ( photo by Parvathi Nair), Figure A5.6 (photo by Elian Peña) and Figure A5.7 Recyclable construction material workshop( photo by Parvathi Nair)

ANNEXES BANG PU

Figure A5.8 and Figure A5.9 Ta-bae ka mai second hand woodshop(photos by by Josue Robles)

Figure A5.10, Figure A5.11 and Figure A5.12 Diagram of built form and usage

Figure A6.0 Contrast between slum, mid-class, and temple/tourism(photo by Jose di Girolamo)


A6.0 RATTANAKOSIN ISLAND annex

annex

RATTANAKOSIN ISLAND InterviewsINTERVIEWS: DAY 1Wangkromprassommutamormphan Community

54 households267 people• Land is owned by CPB. The palace located in

the community belonged to Rama IV son, when Thailand became a constitutional monarchy, and many properties got sold off.

• Had already upgraded before Baan Mankong, Programme is addressing land issues.

• Livelihoods: Royal servants• Sub-renters from 1st generations• Residents are a mix of low and middle-income

occupants• Land ownership is a mix of CPB and private

ownership• Spatiality: shop houses, courts, narrow streets, no

formal community space• Communities know each other but don’t really

interact all that much except at events• CPB has no eviction policy but if sub tenants do

not agree to negotiate rents after upgrading they can be evicted.

Land and Housing Construction:• Ownership belongs to CPB. residents rent land

from CPB but (may or may not) own house• 2600 baht per year property tax• pre-upgrading surveys must be done by CPB so

that land rental price can be raised• Under the Baan Mankong programme land rental

prices may be stabilised.

Finance and funds:• Multiple sources of funding: CODI and CPB

(200,000 baht from each)• Loan has been granted but remains in the bank as

they have no proposal for plans• Confusion over minimum savings group

contributionCommunity mobilisation and capacity building:• Savings group was set up before Baan Mankong

Programme by CPB• 2 ½ years old• 200 baht per month• Middle class contribute to savings group to help

others out• Many committees: activities, accountants, CPB

coordination• Partnerships with other actors and infrastructure:• Entered into Baan Mankong for infrastructure

upgrading• Mapping the different sources of funding that may

overlap

Ban Batt Community

• Focus is on rebuilding on the same land• Project started 4 years ago but it took them a year

to understand the programme• They are looking to strengthen local economy with

a tourism initiative• Community seems to have strong ties to each

other, perhaps reinforced by community centre• It is one of the oldest communities• Livelihoods: Monk bowl production

Land and Housing Construction:• Ownership belongs to CPB and Temple• Temple residents are part of the second phase

of baan mankong programme in this community- cannot get grant until they have proof of acceptance from temple but negotiations with institution of Buddhism are proving difficult

• Temple does not grant receipts meaning residents have no proof of occupancy

• Split in land ownership has split community• Temple land residents seem to feel insecurity of

tenure and as a result oppose upgrading• Proof of occupancy has to be provided to avoid

eviction (receipts or old objects)• CPB puts restrictions on building heights• Materials used can increase heights (currently

buildings are concrete on the bottom and wooden on the top)

• By law, land owner owns building, if they are evicted, the CPB will reimburse them.

ANNEXES RATTANAKOSIN ISLAND


Figure A6.1 Narrow pathway in community (photo by Su Ann Tan)

Finance and funds:• 90% of community is in savings group• Temple land residents are not part of savings group• Savings group was set up before Baan Mankong

Programme by CPB• 2 ½ years old• 200 baht per month (100 for membership and 100

minimum for welfare)• Can contribute more to savings group if you want

the loan quicker

Community mobilisation and capacity building:• Community networks

Partnerships with other actors and infrastructure:• Entered into Baan Mankong for infrastructure

upgrading• Mapping the different sources of funding that may

overlap• Use traditional wells as a water source and as part

of their livelihood (monk bowls)• Local authorities are starting to talk to the

community and negotiate• MOU between BMA and CPB has been proposed

for the community- BMA seems to see them as an important example of housing intervention

• Community centre was part of infrastructure proposal to CODI and therefore supported by the grant

• Elections for community board roles- crown representative must be present

Wat Saket: Community:

2 year of Baan Mankong65 households37 in Baan Mankong40 shop houses• Huge diversity between economic status of

residents• Internal differentiation between residents and

their interests/objectives/expectations of the programme

• Economic interests in upgrading community• Livelihoods: Coffin making, 90% of resident own

shops there• Spatiality: Normal street, not an alley way for

entrance/ exit

Land and Housing Construction:• Land ownership is CPB and Temple• Land is not a major issue, Baan Mankong is being

used as a tool to mobilise people and address issues they have with the local economy

• Upgrading had already been done without CODI grants

• Private businesses contributed some materials• 300,00 baht paid from their own money to upgrade• 120 baht per month to rent land

Finance and funds:• Private funding from other savings group as well

as interest from investment/ banking

participate in CM yet, need for more understanding of programme and its benefits

Partnerships with other actors and infrastructure:• Partnerships with university for activities purposes• TAT under ministry of tourism and sports as an

established partnership

Watsuntornthammathan Community:

233 households800 people • 129 members of saving group• 13 problematic houses: very poor, drugs, theft and

living on temple land• Want to involve richer people in the community to

improve perceptions• They approached house holds door by door to

promote Baan Mankong• Significant problems with children as a result of

abandonment (teenage parents)• Some people have more than one unit• Shop houses and lower-income housing seem to

have some conflict• Middle income households are interested in Baan

Mankong for the sake of getting an extended lease.• Perceived as a poor community

Land and Housing Construction:• Ownership belongs to CPB and temples

Finance and Funds:• Baan Mankong fund• Village fund: used for daily needs and livelihoods

Community mobilisation:• Part of a network of a historic walk (between the 6

communities) – eco-tourism walk• Organisation of community activities and events• Jakkrapadipong Community:

Interview outside of migrant renters houseWe spoke to some migrants from Cambodia who are yet to join the BM programme.

They discussed several points that explained their position about not joining:

• They were uncertain about renting through the programme, as they rent directly from CPB and not a sublease. Also they were apprehensive as this is a long term commitment that would require the next generation to continue this.

• They would rather observe other communities first to see what challenges they would face so they could learn from them and mitigate potential risks.

• There is a concern for the future power structure, as they have trust in today’s leaders but not sure about tomorrows.

• The challenge that they will face is not with the

Partnerships with other actors and infrastructure:• Collaborating with universities: children’s activities,

art gallery• Partnership with private sector in palace:

community is able to use space for community activities outside of working hours (agreement is between CPB and private company)

Sitaram Community:

65 houses including 40 shops37 houses not participating in BM• CPB owned land• Transfer of rights after old lady’s dad passed away,

only right to plot behind• Spatiality: narrow entrance on main road, behind

shop house.• Started savings groups 3,5 years ago• 100 B / month per household• 40 members of savings groups, including residents

of shop houses and other houses. Residents of shop houses participate in savings groups for infrastructure improvement.

• Funds: politicians, CODI, municipality• Fund for infrastructure approved by CODI but not

received yet• Shop houses/middle class vs. poor behind the

shop houses. Lack of interactions, fragmentation• No community space yet• There seems to be no connection between the

other houses. • Using culture as a tool

Jakkrapadipong Community:

52 shop houses27 wooden houses at the back• Tension between shop owners and people behind. • Residents behind not ready to join the programme.

They are skeptical, while shop houses really wanted infrastructure grants.

• Diversity within community, in terms of income, also origin (Lady was Cambodian)

Land and Housing Construction:• CPB owned land• Houses built after WWII. “typical” housing types,

wooden architecture etc. • Upgrading of shophouses funded by CPB (facades,

6 years ago)• Some were individually funded upgrading (house

behind coffee house)

Finance and funds:• 90% of people are part of BM and savings groups• 100, 000 Baht have been collected in one year and

a half

Community mobilisation and capacity building:• Network different than NULICO• People behind the shop houses: not willing to



Figure A6.2 Self-designed houses (photo by Jose di Girolamo)

savings group but when they move on to a cooperative. Although CODI help them to scale up, it is complicated for them to understand as they only get step-by-step information of the stages rather than full information.

• It is not hard to save up every months but it is hard for people to be consistent when paying.

This was a highly lively exchange between different communities that enabled them to identify the common obstacles they faced and possible collective solutions, with premature plans of a tourist cycle route being proposed by the community as a way to spatially integrate the fragmented communities.

What was made clear is that culture and tourism are being used as a soft entry point to addressing the hard pressing issues such as land tenure and livelihood. Hosting this workshop at this highly resilient community proved inspirational to other communities, as although they are not participating in the BM programme they are in great solidarity, which is a living testament to what they themselves can overcome and achieve.

WORKSHOP : Phom Mahakan CommunityNon-Baan Mankokng on BMA Land

The community requested that we make a master plan of the site and make recommendations to how they could landscape some of the community grounds to accommodate their vision of tourism whilst acting as a functional space to support their daily life.

This required us to divide into two groups, and explore the site with the community listening to how they envisioned the area and elaborate on their interaction with the spaces and each other. From this we were able to propose extending the canal walkway, a café at the bottom of the planned NESDB centre and the incorporation of interactive facades to host the communities planned workshops for visitors.

We started the workshop by asking each community representative three questions, as a way to actively engage them as opposed to them being passive observers to the presentation. This allowed us to gather data and compare where they think they are to where they actually are positioned. The nature of questions such as “what challenge are you facing?” gave the communities a platform to which they discussed multiple issues, the majority of which interlinked.


Figure A6.3 Community by river


Figure A6.4 Detailing of existing houses


Figure A6.5 Contrast between slum and palace(photo by Jose di Girolamo)

Figure A6.6 Improvised kitchen at historic wall (photo by Su Ann Tan)


Figure A6.7 Wall between community and city (photo by Dhrin Anantamongkolchai)

decoding baan mankong- bangkok, thailand

Documents

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