Palm’s Proposal: “Communal Living Center"

             

interior view of the model

The space inside was designed to provide maximum visual connection between each floor

Ladprao1 site is unique use of the shop houses, instead of a single living on the top floors and work downstairs like regular shop houses. The inhabitants are actually the workers of the nearby malls who rented a 4x4 room to use it as a “bedroom” and storage. This also combined with the fact that they also use the open-air food court called “Suan Pai” in the center of the site as a “dining room” and the neighboring fresh market as a “kitchen” or a “refrigerator”. Thus, this represent the idea of “manipulation” in which I’ve explored earlier in the installation project and defined as erotic. In simpler words, the typology of “shop house” in this site has been manipulated through the misuse of the inhabitants. The shop houses only symbolize the “bedrooms” for the workers while the actual living space for the inhabitants of the site becomes a fluid flexible blob, which constrict and expand due to different situations. More interestingly, is the pattern of how the workers who would have migrated into the city have to share their space with fellow workers from different parts of the country. Hence, there’s also a concept of overlapping, how they have to interact with one another and the ambiguity of public and private space and ultimately, the exchange of knowledge.

The proposal “Communal Living Center” derived directly from the context of the site by analyzing what is actually missing form the ideology of a house. “Living room” become a function which is still missing and the proposal hopes to create a large living room in which would provide a communal living space for the inhabitants while, at the same time connected to the already established function such as Suan Pai, which performs as the communal dining room.

However, a question is raised of what’s to put inside a living room, normally, a living room consisted of many functions, thus in the order to determine this, I’ve looked closer at the intended users which then proved to be the workers who had left their hometowns in the hope of finding jobs and earn money. Thus, I wanted them to always be reminded of who they are and be proud of their identities and therefore I decided to base the functions of each floor of the center on the regional activity of different region of Thailand.

For examples, the roof area is a miniature rice field and a garden, this is inspired by the Central plain region, where they’re well known for their agriculture. The 3^rd floor is a art & crafts space inspired by the North region where they’re well known for their beautiful art works. The 2^nd floor is a projection screen that is meant to be seen from the dining area of Suan Pai, this “screen” idea is inspired by the shadow puppets of the South region. Lastly, the ground floor is a music room , where people can come in to practice their skill or even perform for the people in the food court.

Despite appearing quite fragmented, these functions actually interrelated by the users, where in reality would have the freedom to do any activity that they’re interested in, thus, in a way, it forces people to interact and encourages an exchange of knowledge. Also all of these functions are related in Thai culture, we use materials from nature such as leather to craft them into art and when combined with music, a performance is created.

Mock up model: study of natural light inside the space

Mock up: testing the idea of shadow projection

simple mock up model: testing the materials

model 1:15

model 1:15

Diagram explaining the relations of the functions inside.

Rough Zoning diagram

Plan and exploded axon

axon showing different floors

Thus, through developments, I’m quite certain to say that this shop house fits quite well within the context of my site and hightlights my site’s unique quality. In terms of its “eroticness”  The “erotic” of this architecture is the fact that it reaches out to the community, when a performance is shown on the screen of the 2^nd floor, it projected out to the people on the food court. That is erotic to me; the ability for the architecture to expands out and includes others. Moreover, the functions in side also promote interaction of people and challenge the conformity between public and private space as it inherits the function of a public living room…