June 2012
13 posts
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horizon of the possible
notes from Bangkok/what did I learn from the field trip:
1. We are in the ‘post-political’ times where coproduction really does seem like the only way to make significant change.
2. We, (people), in the end are so simple, we want security in the future. The question is how much you’re willing to risk the present to secure the future, and what your perception of that risk and...
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...unveiling some of the assumptions in Pattaya, a...
I should have posted this entry weeks ago, while we were in Bangkok. I’m still coping with time management, endeavour that has been almost unachievable during the fieldtrip, and especially after it. This post pretends to reflect some of my thoughts after working for several days with the communities in Pattaya, the site I was assigned to. It was 5 days in total, working far away from our base...
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Scaling down versus Scaling up
The fieldtrip experience allowed us to interact with and see up close a possible scenarios for the cities of the third millennium. During the year in the academic sphere, critical analysis often brought moments of discouragement and pessimism seeing the incapacity of spatial design solutions to deal with issues such as poverty and informality in an effective way. The work of CODI and the Baan...
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Looking Back and Thinking Ahead: a post-Bangkok...
“Have landed safely in Bangkok. Smells and looks like Karachi. Love, Sarah”
This was the text message I sent my parents upon arriving in Bangkok on 27th April, 2012. The message marked the first of many assumptions I made about the city over the next few weeks.
In an involuntary attempt to adjust and orient to my new surroundings, my mind kept making parallels to places in my memory. My...
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Community Architects as part of reflection on Baan...
Turning our minds back to our thoughts of Bangkok and the Baan Mankong programme before we left on the fieldtrip makes it so tempting to compare, to compare everything. Pre and post fieldtrip. A vs Z.
It’s this hindsight-mania that makes it a mistake to see this stage of our understanding as the clearest viewpoint from which to look down and see that experience laid beneath us, to see...
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murmur and our very long version acknowlegement
Ever since come back from Bangkok we had been fully occupied with the presentation and report until finally handed in the work last Friday. For me, now it is time to rethink what I have learnt and done in this field trip.
First of course it is the experience gained in the field, both working with ‘real people’ but to observing as well as getting information using my own senses. To be frank, even...
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Paper versus reality
During the preparations for this fieldtrip I walked around for a long time with the question of what our work would entail and how it would benefit CODI’s way of working as most of the impressions I had were of an organisation that had a clear idea of what their goals are and how to (successfully) implement their strategies on the ground.
In the field we finally got the opportunity to witness the...
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Back to London, what is next?
Coming back to London, we had so many things to do, a lot of group works, presentation and the final report! There are too many things in our mind. How can Bangkok increase the involvement of poorer citizens, especially those who living in informal conditions? How to break the boundaries in term to bridge the gaps? What are the boundaries to address that possible to scale up Baan Mankong?
We...
May 2012
19 posts
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Again in London, after a memorable experience...
There were so many experiences, thoughts and discussions shared, every night before going to sleep, in a bus journey or in the hotel´s entrance with a beer on hand. I really enjoyed the long, detailed chats with Paola, with my 3 Colombian friends and with Buddor and Silvia in the bus. It was amazing to see how each person perceives their own country, and how opinions differ from one person to...
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With the energy to do things!!!
I think now is the time to comment on my experience on our field trip.
Today (written on the 11th of may after the presentations), we have shared all our learning gained from the communities. I am completely amazed with the solidarity, collective action and aspirations of Thai people. It has inspired me and given me the appetite to develop those ideals. Now, I believe, that change is...
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common goals thorugh common spaces
In the past days, during the field trip, me and my work group have tried to share with the communities we have been visited a diverse way of looking at their conditions.
We have done mapping, interviews, time lines, letting them express the priorities of issues they see in their living into that specific community. We have asked individually what elements they would aspire to see and maintain...
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Pattaya
Coming straight from the school benches, without any experience in working on site and with the various stakeholders involved in projects such as these, I was amazed by the work of CODI’s Baan Mangkong and how much strength, motivation and engagement can come from within a community.
Our group had the chance to meet communities in Pattaya, two hours outside of Bangkok which were still in the...
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Everyone buying, everyone selling
The last two weeks proved to be an almost overwhelming experience; the initial suffocation of Bangkok can be a lot to handle - squid sauce and tank tops, taxis and wires, bridges on bridges - and all the people inbetween, made my pre departure thoughts of the project drop away as we familiarised ourselves with our home for the next few weeks. Everyone buying, everyone selling.
Meeting Somsook,...
Pressures on the community
If I could sum up the city of Bangkok in two words it would be “mega infrastructure”. All over the city there seem to be these humongous fly-over road sections and railways supporting movement throughout the city, which all seems very impressive for a developing nation. However, beneath this grand infrastructure network, there is the other reality, pockets of “informal” communities which are out...
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Finally, yesterday we came to the final ‘big’ day after intensive 5 days site visiting and 2 days group working. The communities, the ACHR staff, the CODI staff, ACCA and Thai student came to see our presentations. Each groups presented their reflection and their specific task of the sites. For the communities, it likes a big experience and excitement to get people from around the world come to...
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Bang Prong would become a memorable word during my trip in Bangkok. Warm people, nice food, great dance and so on. Unfortunately, the process of Bang Prong Project was not parallel to the idea of Baan Mankong Program. The notion of Baan Mangkong actually is to build the strength of the community through collaboration, dialog in the process of housing, networking and capacity building. But what we...
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‘Let them dance our song!’
For the past 3 days, we had some wonderful time in sharing thoughts and ideas with different actors, including community members, CODI staffs, banker, community leaders and community architects. Many important thoughts and information were then continually imported to our mind and the title is a motto-like sentence given by the amazing lady Somsook. Actually besides this one, she created many more...
April 2012
21 posts
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Pre_Bangkok
Continuous reflection about transformation; its definition and the criteria.
These have been the main process of group work pre-Bangkok. We have been trying to unpacked Baan Mangkong programme in the framework of our definition, working towards strategies that can contribute in some way to the programme and our studio; strategies that are going to be tested in the field trip.
Our...
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Between real and imagined
Everything packed and ready to experience Bangkok! For over a month we have studied the case through others. We have created our knowledge through academic articles, lectures and seminars adding a deeper understanding of the Thai culture and the Baan Mankong Collective Housing Programme.
Before, I just knew the global image that Thailand as a country represent, added to borrowed images and...
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The end of assumptions...
February 9th, the secret was revealed: we are going to Bangkok for the field trip! We had been waiting for this moment since we started and sooner than I expected, here it was. After the presentation of the field trip I realised this was the end of the course, and that all we had been doing until then, was partly to prepare us for the amazing experience we had ahead of us. I was really exited...
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Baan Mankong-Changing Perception
Community development is perceived generally as a state or private sector led initiative, especially when it involves the provision of dwelling units. In many developing countries, including my own, these high level interest groups plan and implement development projects without any genuine consideration or input from their target group/market. Ordinary people and by extension communities are...
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“The power to imagine serves as a bridge that could agitate and move people from...”
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Bangkok: the final frontier
When this years’ BUDD group convened for the first time back in September 2011, thinking about the field felt like a long way off. It’s difficult to calculate exactly how and where the time went these past 8 months, but it has been a ride of a lifetime. And now finally we are here: Bangkok – the final frontier for BUDD. Bombay and Brescia now seem like a dream compared to the real time, real...
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transformers and butterflies
What is transformation? the usual problem of the best questions is that they’re incredibly difficult to answer (if not impossible!).
What is transformation? A caterpillar turning into a butterfly, cancer cells from biology class, and transformer action figures from childhood are what comes to my mind. Both are characterised by A SERIES of not necessarily distinct phases, but culminating in...
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Bangkok: not just a postcard
The general picture of Bangkok: tourists, hot, humid, noisy, busy, vibrant nightlife, … And for many years also what I imagines this enormous city to be. But what is often forgotten is that there is another story of a city, that of the people. And not just any people, as I had the privilege to experience today: never have I felt more welcome than in the four communities which we visited this...
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First impression of Bangkok
After 11 hours stuck in the plane, we finally arrived in Bangkok at 4.30pm. Being in London for more than half a year makes me forget about the feeling of being on fire, but the first breath out of the plane just helped me to recall that sense immediately. Luckily it is not as hot as I expected, and even the humidity just made me homesick instead of being annoying. Everything here is so similar...
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Bangkok…pre-departure musings
From the comfort of my JL Bangkok Hotel Room, and after finally finding space, time and an internet connection, I’m posting here my musings and thoughts, upto my arrival at Heathrow Terminal 3 to board the BA Flight 009 to Bangkok….
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Packed and ready with mosquito repellant, sunglasses and a raincoat to man the hot, humid and occasionally wet Thai weather, here we are...
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Bangkok Love Story
I’m just back from the pharmacy where I bought a pack of anti-diarrhea pills. What can I add to what my classmates have already said? They wrote loads of insightful stuff. At this point our readers will know that we are travelling to Bangkok this evening, to explore and analyze CODI’s Baan Mankong programme in order to learn from it, and try to propose ways to improve it. We studied it for two...
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Ready to depart
There are images we have in our minds at this moment. They have been built during the last two months and what I presume we are going to experience in the next couple of weeks is a progressive adjustment of those images.
We are going to encounter at first hand people involved in processes of crucial importance for the lives of those more disadvantaged within the city. We will meet individuals...
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Scale and the Path to Transformation
During our collective preparation work towards understanding transformation in the context of the Baan Mankong programme, the nature of transformation became increasingly intangible as we closely explored and scrutinised the criteria. It occurred to me that, in many ways some insights can be gained from the predominant religion in Thailand, Buddhism.
According to Buddhism, the ‘path’...
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Uncertain, but wicked excited
In eight hours I will hop on a flight to a city in a continent I have never visited before, in weather hotter than I have ever experienced, to study a culture and a revolutionary programme that up until now I have only read about.
It is this last point I am most excited about (not, incidentally, the heat). For as much as one can read about and study a subject, you never really and truly know...
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Bangkok Blind Date
So, we’re really going. Pre-date nerves are starting to set in…
Carefully preparing ourselves (what to wear?!) and trying to mentally prepare for whats coming - when we will be sitting face to face.
Although I’m a bit apprehensive, its a relief to know we’ve been introduced by friends - and if things get a bit awkward, they’ll help us to break the ice…
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Last hours to the reality
Less than 10 hours left to leave London and flight to Bangkok. My feeling is uncertain now. On the one hand, I am happy and excited; On the other hand, I worry. I am happy and excited to leave London with its weather and have bit refreshment in the country with the full culture and dynamic life. Especially, it would be the real experience to work in the ground with the people and the institutions....
