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Public Contribution in
High-Rise Building Design
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@ New York City
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| Introduction | ||
| 1. My City | ||
| I was raised in Bangkok, one of the
busiest cities in the world. The 200 year old Bangkok City of non-urban
planning development drove the city to grow without direction. A lot of
problems happened; ranging from floods, traffic Jam, pollution, etc. This
seems to be so normal for the big city in a developing country. One of
my professors from my university said that Thai people would solve the
problem only after it happens. They never plan ahead about it. Most of
the solutions come out too late. No exceptions for the urban problem.
Such a big problem even takes more time to solve. |
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The knowledge about urban planning
and urban design was introduced to Thailand about 30 years ago, only
in academic area. For Bangkok citizens, they just heard about it 7 years
ago in the Bangkok Metropolitan Mayeral election. Finally, many plans
were brought up to develop the urban environment. Zoning law was updated
and modified in a certain direction with more back up from knowledgeable
staff members. Therefore, at least, there are some good signs from the
Metropolitan Government.
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| One of the biggest problems of Bangkok was the density. With 35 by 35 square miles, it contains 10 million people. No matter how hard the Metropolitan trys to create open space and public park for the people, the percentage of the park compared to the population is only about 20% from what is supposed to be. "Lack of Land" for developing into quality space seems to be a big problem. In fact, this is just a common excuse if one looks at this problem only on the surface. If we look towards Bangkok from the sky, we can see a lot of land that is large, undeveloped and enclosed which is owned by private sectors. Most of the private sectors in Thailand never do a single thing to contribute to the city. The problems of the city can never be eliminated only from the Metropolitan side, but it needs to be from the private sector also. If they never participate, then this problem will still continue. | ||
| Many Tourists and foreigners who have visited Thailand always mentioned that Thai people are very nice, kind and helpful. But this character hardly be seen in the building design concerning urban space. If anybody has a piece of land, they will build high walls to cover it from people's sight. They do not want anybody to even"See" it. The worst case of Bangkok for this character is the Satorn Road and Silom Road. This area was registered as Central Business District area. It is one of the few areas that allow 1:12 FAR with very large building envelope. Automatically, it became the land of high-rise buildings but without open space. | ||
| Every building is separated from each other. Between every piece of land where the high-rise building is located, there are "Fence" or "Concrete" wall between it. There is only one way to get into the building which is the same way to get out. To explain this in a simple way, it is a group of high-rise buildings that has the urban system of housing. "This is my piece of land. Nobody can get in; and that is your piece of land, I will never walk into". There is no public space, and no green space. The rental area of these buildings starts from the ground floor. | ||
| I always love high-rise buildings. I believe that it is the symbol that expresses how human wins over the power of nature. When I look at the buildings grow into the sky, I always feel like I have more enegy within me. Eventhough high-rise character is the result of Economics I still believe that high-rise buildings can play important role in changing the city into a better place. I also believe that some problems concerning the lack of public space in my city can be solved if we can find a way to make "high-rise" buildings become more "friendly" to the public than what they are right now. | ||
| 2. New York City | ||
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| The love of high-rise buildings drove me to KPF. It drove me to New York City. The situation of certain areas in Bangkok that interested me, became the whole city of Manhattan for me to observe. I have learned about the strict zoning policy of New York and the public space that was provided and contribute to the city by private sectors. There are many reasons for them to do that. In my opinion, what seems to be the problems in New York City at present may be the problem that will happen in Bangkok in the future. | ||
| New York is the high-density city with the great infrastructure and public transportation system. Manhattan has no more land to be used for building anything. There is no way to expand but going up into the sky. Much of the island is artificial space filled with high-rise buildings. Lack of public area is also the main problem which has been solved by the regulation of the city to give the options to the investor who contribute some aspect to the public. The contributions range from transportation facility, open space etc | ||
| Eventhough they already contributed and gave the city lot of public space and facility, it did not mean that this entire contribution will make the city become a better place. Some open space turned into dead space that nobody is using. Some connections to the subway station became unpleasent environmental area. People prefer walking on the street than going into it. These problems can be the future problems of Bangkok, my beloved city. | ||
| It may be once in a while that Thai people can learn how to "prevent" a problem not to happen instead of to "solve" or "justify" it after the problem is occurred. | ||