One Bangkok

One really big development project

While browsing through one of the architecture blogs that I peruse on a frequent basis, I came across an entry discussing a new development being proposed for Bangkok, called One Bangkok.  To say this is a big development is an understatement.  The well known American architectural firm, SOM, is proposing to create a multi-tower ‘community’ housing 60,000 people.  This is the size of a small town – right in the heart of Bangkok.

We all know about the effect of tower development in Toronto.  The public transit system and roads are increasingly clogged.  There are fewer places for families to live in the core and midtown parts of the city and it seems like every new development is focused on young unattached people.  This seems to be the case in Bangkok as well, but on a much larger scale.  (Bangkok does, after all, have a population that is probably not far off Ontario’s.)

While the architects make a bold case for making a series of vertical towers into a community that rivals Bangkok’s traditional neighbourhoods, I wonder how you get all the street food and street life into a vertical world.  However, there is only so much land available and the only way to get more people accommodated is to go up and so maybe the SOM guys will be successful.  Who knows.  But only in Asia do you see such mammoth single development schemes. Why build one or two towers when you can build six.

Bangkok, like almost every city in Asia, does not look like it did, just 10 years ago.  This, I suppose, is the way it is.  More people are attracted to the job opportunities and the growth engines that these big cities provide and so housing is necessary.  Something is lost, but I suppose something is also gained.

At least in Bangkok’s case, the construction of public transit is an ongoing and seemingly never ending project.  More lines and stops keep getting added every year.  I wish we could say the same for Toronto.