EMBRACING THE LANDSCAPE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 49

EMBRACING THE LANDSCAPE: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 49 Published by Li-Zenn Publishing ©2022 Landscape Architects 49 Li-Zenn Publishing Limited 112 Sukhumvit 26, Bangkok 10110, Thailand T: +66 (0) 2259 2096 li-zenn@li-zenn.com www.li-zenn.com Facebook: Li-Zenn Publishing Line: @li-zenn Instagram: lizennpublishing All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means-graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage and retrieval systems without prior written permission from the publisher.

National Library of Thailand Cataloging in Publication Data Landscape Architects 49 “Embracing the Landscape”.-Bangkok : Li-Zenn, 2022.

372 p.

1. Landscape Architecture.

2. Landscape Architecture-- Thailand. I. Title.

712 ISBN 978-616-459-047-2 Printed by Tiger Printing (Hong Kong)

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P 26

P 46

P 62 P 72

P 54

P 82

IRPC INNOVATION CENTER (IIC)

MING MONGKOL GREEN PARK

THE PHILOSOPHER’S TRAIL

BAAN KRUNGTHEP KRITHA

BANGKOK UNIVERSITY

ARTS OF THE KINGDOM MUSEUM

THE PARK LAND SRINAKARIN

SERENE LAKE

P 15 4

P 12 0

P 138

P 12 4

P 112

P 10 4

P 92

P 130

P 94

KALPATARU PARK CITY CENTRAL PARK

MASTER PLAN

CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

RURAL & SUBURBAN

A MOUNTAIN HIDEAWAY

BAAN KHAO YAI

SUNPLAY CLUB & BANGSARAY HEIGHTS

MAE FAH LUANG UNIVERSITY

VIDYASIRIMEDHI INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY & KAMNOETVIDYA SCIENCE ACADEMY P 36

MASTER PLAN

MOUNTAIN & TERRAINS

UNDULATING

FOREWORD P 12 PREFACE P 14 INTRODUCTION P 16 DESIGN APPROACH P 2 1

Contents

10

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P 17 6

P 162

P 222

P 25 2

P 262

P 28 2

P 27 2

P 330

PROJECT DATA P 338 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PROJECTS AWARDS P 362 THE FIRM P 364 PARTNERS AND ASSOCIATES P 36 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS P 36 9

THE SKY GALLERY

NAITHONBURI BEACH RESORT

P 312

P 29 4

P 30 8

P 326

P 30 2

RENAISSANCE PHUKET RESORT & SPA

PRIME NATURE VILLA HUA HIN

OCAS HUA HIN

THE TUBKAAK KRABI BOUTIQUE RESORT

WAN VAYLA

MASTER PLAN

P 240

P 256

SEASIDE & ISLAND

BAAN SOI 16

HOTEL INDIGO WIRELESS ROAD

THE LUMPINI 24

THE BANGKOK THONGLOR

P 19 4

P 18 6

P 17 2

P 2 30

P 19 2

P 214

P 20 0

A Space I.D. ASOKE - RATCHADA

DOMUS

THE BANGKOK SATHORN

333 RIVERSIDE

CENTRAL WORLD

KING POWER COMPLEX

THAI FARMER BANK (HEAD OFFICE)

GAYSORN VILLAGE

EMPIRE CITY PUBLIC REALM

MASTER PLAN

CITY SCAPES

URBAN

P 34 2

Foreword

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I began my career with the Department of Public Works and Municipal Works after graduation from Chulalongkorn University almost 60 years ago.

I was assigned to design some municipal parks at Khao Noi in Songkhla, Yan Ta Kao in Trang, and other small garden projects here and there. I designed these projects with the minimum knowledge learned from the fundamental of Landscape Architecture Design in the third-year elective subject at the architectural school. I cannot recall the design principles I had used then. By the late 1960s, I had the opportunity to further my graduate study abroad in Landscape Architecture and came to realize its importance to the future of our long-term human survival. Design is not only about aesthetic values but also requires the designer to have considerable knowledge of the types and particulars of natural landforms. It leads to understanding specific landforms and realizing that some of them should have no alteration. Still, some can be modified, while others can be freely incorporated according to their natural features.

The design principle of the Land Suitability concept in Ian Mcharg’s book “Design with Nature,” though it had its heyday in the analog age of the hand-drawn overlay analysis method, is still relevant today. The concept has been incorporated by today’s computer-aided new generation of land planners and landscape architects. Hopefully, they will take this concept further into the future. The concept comprises three groups of key design factors: Lands on Earth, Natural & Cultural, and Aesthetic factors to be considered holistically into the design program and adjusted according to the variables of design requirements; whether they be the user’s preference and behavior, the various functionality, artistic style & design trends, cost-economic concerns, or advanced and versatile digital technologies that are relentlessly changing.

L49 is a landscape architect design firm working to integrate and collaborate with many other design -built disciplines since its establishment. The collective works have demonstrated a range of design expressions in the various natural, cultural, and aesthetic settings. Each one is in tune to varying degrees with the geomorphological natures of the “land,” from flat plains, floodplains, lowlands, rolling hills, grainfields to lower montane forest and urban settlement. Their design responds to all humanistic needs – economics, socio-cultural, and aesthetic variations. L49 is to be admirably commended for its many award-winning projects.

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We are facing the crisis of our time, climate change. All nations strive and combine their efforts to seek solutions to alleviate the issue. Not only will landscape architecture address the functional usage, economic concerns, and art-cultural aspect as usual, but it also will provide its expertise in mitigating the impacts of Climate Change, whether rising sea levels or river overflow flooding into settlements situated on flood plains. It can help us reduce energy consumption and net emission. While we promote active activities like walking or bicycling, we can lessen the longestablished influence of the automobile-oriented design approach. Besides these, planting more trees on ground and roof levels helps reduce heat from barren hard surfaces. Now is the time for bringing up joint forces to resist improper practices or mishaps of land uses. Several reserved or protected areas, such as marshlands, mangroves, forests, flood plains, riverbanks, and seashores, are under threat.

With over 30 years of experience in the field, L49 has accumulated quality knowledge to be a professional design team, proven by the list of distinguished design awards they have collected over the years. I believe the team is one of the leading and important Landscape Architecture firms. It can foster interdisciplinary collaboration amongst allied architectural design and city planning disciplines to address the critical issues for the urban development in crisis and carve out a prospering and sustainable future for our beautiful living environment.

Decha Boonkham Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture, Fellow of The Royal Institute and National Artist

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Preface

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Landscape Architecture is one of the major design disciplines that help create and shape our living environment. Beside the knowledge required for construction, technology and built-up design idea, as a landscape architect, we need to understand and acquire knowledge of the living nature of plants, forestry and ecology to justify and balance the design and how to fit harmoniously the human built settlement into the environment. What needs to be preserved must be preserved for next generation at all costs, what have already gone shall be revived to bring back as much as possible to create a livable, meaningful and sustainable built environment. Unlike other design disciplines, their work is usually completed the day after the construction is finished but for most landscape architectural design work, this is the start day of the process in which the design will grow into the creative vision in mind.

Landscape Architects 49 Limited ‘L49’ was founded in 1989 from the vision of Mr. Nithi Sthapitanonda, founder of Architects 49 limited and 49 group of companies to have all design disciplines under the same umbrella to render a complete service in the design and construction industry. We have been fortunate over the years to have had the opportunity to engage in a wide range of projects from very big scale master plan, site - land planning, all types of genres in landscape architectural design for public-use spaces for commercial, residential, hotel-resort, urban design, public park type projects to very private residential projects. They have led us to encounter all sorts of terrains from undulating mountains to seaside, very urbanized cities to unspoiled natural surroundings.

Our 30+ years of working in the field, we have lived through many changes in social norm-behavior -ideology, social statement – political agenda, aesthetic perception-value. Through these periods, our design have progressed and evolved from collective learning of our past experiences and the constant search for new materials - productsconstruction technology to fulfill the design interpretation. The projects selected for this book aims to give an overview with highlights from our works in each period. The book portrays works in various terrains, preferred characters and trends in design and shifting public values in the course of time. The appearance of each design is a reflection of each period through time. However, the deep fundamental of our work still remains at its core which is the design principle of landscape architecture.

At L49, we believe in employing the simplest design solution to create innovative and workable environment that solve the complexity of site and requirements from our clients. We applied the knowledge of urban design, landscape architecture, site and environmental planning to find balance in generating the maximum benefit for people to dwell and experience in the landscape harmony. Through time, the design shall be growing together with people.

The design is to serve the need for us humans to live happily and harmoniously with the created environment that will sustain for future generations to come, embracing the landscape they live in.

Predapond Bandityanond Managing Director

Arrak Ouiyamaphan Deputy Managing Director

Founding Principals

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Introduction Embracing The Landscape

Each big city molds its specific characters to be able to function and survive in the evitable tide of social changes and economic competition. Life in such a rhythm has to keep up with everything at once.

We switch our attention between the online world and the offline continually and that makes each moment in a physical open space become even more meaningful than ever. In this case, landscape architecture, as a discipline, can serve our society as a bridge maker who enjoys to build up a mutual tie between people and place.

In the relationship between building and landscape lies a collaboration of landscape architect and the professionals from the other disciplines such as architect, engineer, interior designer, ecologist, economist, etc. An open gesture of landscape architect is crucial for gathering ideas and insights from the collaborators. Thus, a living concept can be developed and sustained in a master plan. By doing so, stepping back from a quest for solely iconic feature and focusing more on the harmony of the whole are crucial to conduct a synthesis of practical landscape design.

‘Embracing the landscapes’ refers to a growing of the landscape architecture in context. You can see it in how building and landscape relate to our life and each facet of the context, whether it be environmental, ecological, economic, urban, or human aspects. Embracing is a means by which to think about a multi-dimensional relationship of landscape architecture. From this point of view, the role of landscape architect is to compound the selected components of design and make them stay and evolve together over time.

The book ‘Embracing the landscapes’ shares about a set of principles and strategies in landscape architecture on which the practice of Landscape Architects 49 has been founded since 1989. It also encapsulates the spirit that seeks for alternative ways for harmony, beauty, and the formation of atmospheres that could enrich and localize the works of landscape architecture in the context.

Interplay between the natural phenomenon of the context and the impulse of the landscape architecture

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Reading it is similar as a path to explore the relationship between terrains and landscape architecture: from Mountains, Rural and Suburban, Urban, to Seaside and Island. Each terrain comes with the general principles as well as its particularity.

The challenge for each new problem is in the balance between the two. The best chances of survival is a constant cause of concern that rules out formulas.

Usually, a process of selecting and combining landscape components runs its course until it finds a tune that fits in harmony with both life and structure, like fauna, flora, building, or object. It wires all relevant elements in order and sequence in relation to the existing condition. A living concept for a project often emerges from the nature of tension found in the site. In the mountain, a design process of making a masterplan can pinpoint the source of a concept among the insights of site observation. It can surface in a fierce tension between forces of nature and site existing condition which is rich in diversity and unpredictable by nature.

On the contrary, the rural or suburban area on a flat plain has quite light tension in topographical terms. Sometimes, the revitalization of a site through reprogramming the functional requirements and enhancing some topographical characters can turn out to be a worthy value-added step from the economic viewpoint. In the midst of the chaotic city, the design challenge shifts toward an attentive focus on user’s behavior and desire. Nowadays, the users tend to have a growing appetite for work-life balance and cherish their individuality as well as social life. By embracing all questions, the firm seeks a common ground and build up a place where an individual can stay at ease with oneself and enjoy gathering up with their beloved ones.

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The work process at the seaside uses a bit of every approach mentioned before to make an atmosphere of enjoyment for people. That is why the saline soils and drought can become essential ingredients for designing the contrasting play between the struggling and relaxing modes of living in the landscape architecture. The challenge of landscape architecture is thus more about how to enhance a localized relationship and make it practical across the project. Each terrain’s limitations can become a real potential for compounding all elements in balance.

L49 Design Principle L49 approaches strive for harmonious integration that is to find balanced connections between architecture and landscape as well as to create a pleasurable living environment for people. A clear focus on a refined balance of aesthetic harmony and real needs in landscape architecture has been prioritized since its beginning. Through an all-out investigation, the site’s condition and the given information will be analyzed and synthesized. Amidst the very complicated project conditions, the most effective solution to be sought out is the simplest option.

For the firm, it is clearly convincing that unique design shall be created with the simplest idea possible to achieve the delicate articulation of each stitched seam that unites practicality and aesthetics.

It is about seeking an all-embracing idea that can optimize the project’s potential and resources in relation to environmental and economic concerns, while keeping the negative impacts and unnecessary alteration at minimum. From thinking method, space presentation to user’s orientation, all of them are blended together and revealed themselves in a visual sequence. Thus, the realized works are not only intended to be iconic or memorable for users but also sustainable and lasting through time.

The guiding idea is the sense of usefulness.

It sparks a curiosity to seek ways of integration and search for the design in which people and living creatures can live well in harmony. Though the basic methods of arrangement still depend on the very same functional uses or problem-solving patterns.

This path leads to the pursuit of discovery in which the team searches for a different pattern that shows an attempt to evolve distinctively from what has been done before.

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Winding paths of discovery on different terrains: from urban, rural, to mountain.

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Though the two founded partners, Predapond Bandityanond and Arrak Ouiyamaphan, have two completely different work styles, the essence of the firm’s works remains one – ‘an imagined space of harmony.’ It embraces and sustains functional, economic, ecological, and cultural ties in balance. It fosters a connection to the environment, while ensuring warmth and comfort. The concept keeps recurring to different degrees across the board. However, it reveals that, in doing so, there is no fixed rule to follow, but there will always be other ways of making a landscape design mature over time.

Landscape Architects 49 has kept both the means and the ends simple and effective throughout the thirty-years of experience. The idea of engaging a site is fundamental to the principle of Landscape Architects 49. The firm has kept the site’s nature and its relationship with its surroundings as resources and inspirations to enliven people, living things, and community altogether.

Keeping a balanced exposure between online and offline experiences to people’s daily life, Landscape Architects 49 enjoys growing a place where the nature of things can live to a ripe and vigorous old age. It is to create a harmonious experience that embraces people to landscape design space.

It is unavoidable nevertheless that the more challenges keep coming up from diverse surges in the global flow, new sophisticated demands urge for a well-tuned improvisation in landscape architecture practices. In the situation as such, the coherence of sustaining harmony in design will always be under a series of ‘stress-tests,’ not to mention that it has already become a more-than-ever arduous premise to achieve. By saying so, a question remains that how the principles above will steer its navigation in the present-day’s stream so that landscape architecture as a discipline can resolve more challenging conflicts and contradictions to come and improve the quality of life and space in environmental and economic terms.

Which path shall we take? How will the sensible reconciliation between the two concerns be possible amidst the incresing crises without being trapped inside the conventional thinking mode?

“The nature of everything has its limit. If one is induced by what is beyond it, one’s nature will be lost.”

Chuang-tzu once said. By reflecting upon his words, one may naturally agree with him while realizing that a doubt suddenly surfaces. Suppose that the nature of things in our time is in continuous transformation. How can we know what we have learned as limits still be the limits, not a new possibility for creating new alchemy in constant changes?

Resolving the question systemically also means doing a stress-test regularly on the act of ‘embracing the landscapes’ and keeping observing if an adaptation is needed. Paying close attention to situate a poise between two extremities has been the firm’s strong point, and it is so. Actually, this is a sphere in which Landscape Architects 49 lives, no matter if it is by choice or necessity.

In the long run, how the firm will propose its own definition of landscape architecture while retaining firmly the critical thinking line that has been laid down is still an intriguing issue. If ‘no formula’ offers a more extensive territory for sustaining a flexible landscape architectural practice, the commitment to find a blending with emerging differences and diversity will benefit the firm in the time to come as well.

Kanokwan Trakulyingcharoen

This essay is based on a series of interviews with all partners in 2020.

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U N D U L AT I N G M O U N TA I N T E R R A I N S While each natural habitat has its distinct flora and fauna, each society and culture have collected knowledge and wisdom about settling in balanced ways to live with the surrounding nature. Reading the traces of water, light, animals, and plants on the mountain slope can unveil the limitation of each site. It can lead us to identify the critical borderlines and defy the sensitive areas in which wrong intervention can trigger instability to the site conditions. All physical information from the site will be classified, carefully explored, analyzed, and synthesized to reveal its Potential and Constraints.

Water runoff on steeper terrain drags more eroded surface and the organic matter deposited along runoff corridors such as swale, galley, stream, and valley. All of them are the difficult places to build, but some are the places we should not build anything. These areas must be protected for their richness in flora and fauna from the deposit of topsoil washed down from upper terrain, water in the ground, and moisture level in the environment. In landscape architecture, the interplay of light and water in the site is essential in the thinking process. Both enliven the site and people. When achieved, finding a solution to blend with the ecosystem is arduous but exhilarating.

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DESIGN SOLUTION A work process in landscape architecture focuses on identifying the site’s positive aspects such as special terrain features, scenic views, unpleasant scenes, accessibility, etc. It leads to a solution to carve out the existing condition, eliminate all site in-congruencies, and blend all user-specific requirements into the site’s program. After all, an aesthetic approach for each project can come from both the untouched and human-touched landscape content.

MAINTAINING SLOPE / LANDFORM A thorough analysis of the building location, its environment, and the activities always goes hand in hand with a clear understanding of the slope’s degree and activities’ characteristics. Sometimes, the best decision is the most straightforward option that does not require any alteration to the landform.

BALANCING NATURAL / MANMADE SETTLEMENT Any change by our hands in the ecosystem is irreversible. The most sensible way to treat the nature of the site is to involve ourselves with respect and understanding. It is about minimizing the intervention and its impacts so that humans can live in nature harmoniously.

IF CHANGES ARE UNAVOIDABLE, MINIMIZING SLOPE MODIFICATION By doing so, certain criteria can be applied site planning process. Such as thorough understanding of the area with slope steeper than 30 degree and avoiding to locate big function or building mass on it, Harmonious arrangement of building and activities more in line with the natural contour of the slope, Minimize impact of building structure to the slope and manage to balance amount of CUT/FILL soil in the site.

H Y D R O LO GY The ebb and flow of surface water should be handled carefully, such as the highlighted area in purple represents the zone that should be left intact and well-preserved.

A trained observer can notice the nature of the water in the area from the native flora. Those on the ridge differ from these in the valley nearby due to changing moisture levels, sunlight and other factors.

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LOWEST FLOOD PLAIN

is the most critical area for annual flash floods. The valley bottom and first flood plain contain most of the moisture and the most abundant deposit of nutrients and organic matter from upper plains, nurturing the greatest variety of plants and of animal species. Therefore, high level of biodiversity.

SECOND FLOOD PLAIN

is a less critical area but still periodically affected by a ten-year, fifty-year, or a hundred-year flash flood.

The upper plain contains lower level of nutrient richness in the deposit area caused by surface water runoff.

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UPPER FLOOD PLAIN rarely

has annual flash flood occurrence, perhaps once every 200, 500, 1000 years.

The soil condition in higher slope area has the lowest nutrient richness.

It contains a thinner layer of organic matter deposit, otherwise no layer of organic matter, due to surface runoff erosion from upstream to downstream. Therefore, the lowest biodiversity.

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VIDYASIRIMEDHI INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY & KAMNOETVIDYA SCIENCE ACADEMY Rayong, Thailand 2015 131.73 ha (1,317,312 sq.m.)

TALA AWARDS 2015 Honor Award Master Planning & Design Guidelines

The Vidyasirimedhi Institution of Science and TEChnology and KamnoetVIdya Science Academy (VISTEC & KVIS) were founded by PTT group, with aim to create leading academic and research studies in science and technology both at high school and college degree levels.

The master plan of VISTEC & KVIS employs the strategy that blends the site’s existing environment and topography with the required functions of the academic campus. The central idea of the project is to create a unique campus that strengthens the concept of “NATURE and SCIENCE in harmony.” It hopes to see the graduates can learn that promising advancement of technology can coexist in harmony with the environment. The zoning and planning also reflect the attempts to keep a balance between natural and man-made settlements without deteriorating it.

EXISTING PLAN

SLOPE ANALYSIS

ELEVATION PLAN

DRAINAGE ANALYSIS

LAND USE ZONING

BUILDING USE ZONING

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The land use plans were conceived to let people be in touch with the best possible relationships; amongst themselves, with the identity of the place while connecting them to the living landscape.

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RURAL & SUBURBAN C U LT U R A L L A N D S C A P E New vibes are needed for life in rural and suburban areas. It is a time to think about them as an ecosystem virtually connected with cities. The rural area is not a remote place in isolation anymore.

The distinctive division amongst city, countryside, suburban, and nature becomes unclear as all have transformed into the cultural landscape. The rural lifestyle inspires urban people, while urban culture influences the countryside’s ways of living.

In the flat plain landscape, the water meanders slowly and takes a tortuous path, unlike the narrow, straight streams running in mountainous terrain. The project’s goal on this terrain focuses more on recuperating positive site characters, sometimes neglected or abandoned, to create the best condition in which layers of aesthetic meanings can prosper. Through each visual sequence, one can gradually perceive an interplay between two approaches of landscape design: the arrangement of structure or mass as focal points surrounded by space and the method of carving space out of a contextual fabric. Thus, an idea can transform into a concatenation of events in a created landscape, becoming a simple but memorable experience.

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INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE

WATER MANAGEMENT

WATER RESERVE

The ultimate goal of making an integrated landscape is to seek ways to achieve a sense of timelessness. The best way will not call for your attention but invite you to look closer at things around you.

The blending of hardscape and the formation of softscape in the environment makes the created landscape look like it belongs in that place.

Water can be considered a resource and a landscape feature in the planning approach. Any existing waterway network, such as streams, runoff, swales, could bring up a stimulating environment for a project. When the water management is attentively planned in coordination with land elevation and existing vegetation, the created landscape space can have a chance to evolve into an atmosphere that works in harmony with its surroundings.

Collecting water from runoff and rainfall to be kept in reserve for maintaining softscape and water flushing system – such as reservoir

FLOOD PROTECTION To reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of floodwater – for example:- Ditch & Dike - Retention pond or detention basin - Embankment

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CONNECTIVITY

SOCIAL AWARENESS

INSIDE

OUTSIDE

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Design and manage land use plan or zoning plan together with systematic circulation.

- Zoning - Circulation - Utility control

Coordinate the network of connections with public transportation - Public roads - Paths - Transportation exchanges

Encourage community participation and creating space for social gatherings.

- Public spaces (squares, plazas, civic parks, community gardens etc.)

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The traits of northern culture and native vegetation have been adapted into this landscape design’s elements and pattern, giving a unique identity to the landscape of WELLNESS – LIVING – COMMUNITY. It is the pursuit in the appreciation of constructed natural landscape in which also lies comfort, warmth and connectivity to life.

S E R E N E L AK E Chiang Mai, Thailand 2017 116.10 ha (1,161,008 sq.m.)

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This 116 hectare project in Chiang Mai is located on the city’s second ring-road proximity to the airport.

L49 involvement in the project started from the inception stage of master planning. The concept of WELLNESS-LIVING-COMMUNITY aims to encompass various living patterns from single family house, low rise condominium, community center to commercial space, as well as the potential future development plan for resort and hotel when investment conditions became feasible.

The project’s landmark main entrance holds a series of 19-meter-tall structures eliciting reminiscences of the famous floating lanterns of the north and is visible from hundreds of meters away. The entrance driveway embellished with a large basket weaving pattern combines invitingly with the downward slope towards the lake’s panoramic view.

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After an all in-out site investigation, the design team opted on a strategy that revitalizes the site by combining the existing scattered water bodies and increasing dimension so it can serve as a reservoir for rainfall runoff in the neighborhood area as well as becoming a scenic spot for enjoyment.

EXISTING TOPOGRAPHY

HYDROLOGY

ACCESSIBILITY

VISUAL IMPACT & POLLUTION

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CITY SCAPES URBAN How far can we let our city grow denser? What comes with it is the effects of the ever-changing relationship between man and the urban landscape. The higher the living density climbs up, the more meaningful the personal intimacy becomes. That is why the approach of ‘embracing the urban landscapes’ matters to the Landscape Architects 49’s practices. It is about keeping a balance of life and making everyday life – amidst the noisy chaos – not just livable but enjoyable.

Our city can be construed as a landscape. The aesthetics of the city can become a meaningful act when it systemically turns urban fragments into the landscape where people can find a good tune with a harmonious way of living. In this context, a design process gravitates around the interplay between reconnecting and distancing diverse groups of people – or the management of density and the formation of personal intimacy. The basic requirements shape the landscape of juxtaposition while the duality between chaos and serenity becomes the defining elements for space design. The spatial sequence, order, and arrangement become design strategies to create quality work time and playtime while people cherish the urban landscape’s life. Thus, the more flexible it becomes, the more benefits the surrounding communities can earn in the long run.

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L I F E I N A L I M I T E D S PAC E

P R I VAC Y M AT T E R S

URBAN EXPERIENCE

The urban density keeps increasing while the amount of open space in our city continues to diminish. Even a megacity has its natural veins composed of the central veins and their branches.

One crucial concern to deal with the urban space condition is, therefore, about how to establish a mutual relationship between users and the urban landscape.

The seam line between public and private realms in urban spaces needs to be handled with care so that the design can achieve both functions and sentiments for all user groups. Along the urban veins, there are always natural solutions to problems, natural rhythms with which the design direction can move cautiously.

PUBLIC REALM: Public space plays a significant role in the redistribution of urban density’s effects. With space availability far lower than demand, the designer keeps redefining how people experience the public area through landscape design.

The work mode in landscape architecture looks similar to a way of rediscovering what we already have, which often escapes our attention or appreciation. Where public areas meet private ones, a tense relationship arises.

The collected methods here are closer to discovering what we may yet find. The spatial sequence for handling such tension is usually the most straightforward way.

P R I VAT E R E A L M : Sensible privacy in public space renders the uses and experience more intimate while encouraging them to find a place for their use.

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L I F E O N T H E M OV E M E M O R A B L E P L AC E It is about creating and recreating different ideas about the landscape of now. Only the now can give us plenty of spaces for a full embrace of people and place, letting them be in touch with the central veins of landscape.

That is how urban landscape can establish an intimate linkage that remains in people’s memory.

The intimate linkage urges a landscape architect to be attentive to project analysis. Firstly how much one achieves can be seen in the organization of the project accessibility design. Each level of access should correspond to the neat coordination of functions.

At the same time, the feeling of intimacy and privacy in each area should be an important concern to achieve a good balance of play between function and sentiments.

GREEN LINK

SIGHT SEEKING

Urban life comes with the consequences from the high density of land uses, the traffic congestion of the city center, and the reckless growth of urban sprawl. With the urban fragmentation here and there, a green link can serve as a strategic solution to reconnect the worn-out urban tissues.

Amongst the floating urban fragments, people can feel the relentlessness from the city impulse that pushes their back. Expanding the green link for the city dwellers can bring about a more pleasant experience by simply providing an urban oasis for them to enjoy a repose moment.

I N WA R D S I G H T: Not all surrounding aspects are pleasant to see. Considering them as site incongruences, the landscape architect works to carve a better combination for people’s living quality.

O U T WA R D S C E N E : It is not often that a magnificent city view can happen in an urban project. In many cases, an open horizon in the middle of the city can bring about a breathtaking experience for users to enjoy the city life from a spot that is rare to find, such as a rooftop terrace or an open space on a building podium. However, an exploration of what we may yet find is also helpful in working on a site with tight constraints, such as a pocket park in a congested urban area.

The challenge lies in how the landscape design can improve the urban residents’ experience and make the built landscape more relatable and subtle to its users.

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PORT AUTHORITY OF THAILAND REGION Bangkok, Thailand 2010 376 ha (3,760,000 sq.m.)

This mixed-use master plan project was in line with the Port Authority of Thailand’s plan to generate a new urban core development at the heart of Bangkok. The master plan scheme by Landscape Architects 49 redefined the concept of ‘Green City’ by creating a hierarchy of spaces such as open areas, pedestrian mall, landscape buffer zone, waterfront park and promenade, streetscape, public and pocket parks, and addressing vacant spaces under the toll way.

All were linked by a network system of pedestrian paths, bike lanes, streets and transportation exchanges.

The renewal plan design addressed the water surface drainage and integrated waterways into the master plan to render a lively atmosphere.

New and existing site features were woven together through a ‘green link’ network. Riverfront promenade established a direct connection to the area’s new public space. Arranged circulation through the scheme was clearly separated between driveway and pedestrian to foster the shared use by pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles altogether.

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EXISTING LAND USE

PORT AUTHORITY LAND USE

ZONING LAND USE

LAND OWNERSHIP

EXISTING BUILDING

VISUAL (VIEW OF)

VISUAL (VIEW TO)

POLLUTION

POTENTIAL SITE BOUNDARY

LAND VALUE

LAND VALUE

EXISTING SITE IMPACT FOR DEVELOPMENT

EXISTING CIRCULATION NETWORK

UTILITY

SITE POTENTIAL & CONSTRAINTS

POTENTIAL & CONSTRAINTS

LAND USE

BUILDING & GREEN OPEN SPACE

CIRCULATION

MAIN ROAD

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SECONDARY ROAD

TIRTIARY ROAD

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SEASIDE

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SEASIDE & ISLAND By exploring the coastal landscape, one can survey the nature of the surrounding environment expecting clues, some may be obvious but many disguised– like the delicate beauty of overlooked native flora. The specific quality of a place can be as simple as the simplicity of landform itself and its relation to the things and people around it.

A trained observer will be sensible to the ecological phenomenon of the landscape. The landform characteristics are brought into the design process as an indispensable element to create an open invitation to users to look closer at what happens around us.

The complex nature of coastal landscape urges a flexible framework that comprises the various strategies, methods, and experiences that we accumulate from the fore geomorphic terrains, whether they be high slope terrains, or marshy flatlands, or unproductive vacant lands in flood zones, or crowded urban settlements. Behind the ethereal beauty of this terrain, we will inevitably face several challenges to refresh such lessons learned and put them on – like an adjustable set of lenses. This method can help us handle coming challenges and sensitive issues with love and care.

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COA S TA L E C O LO GY

SAND DUNE

Coastal ecology comprises diverse habitats, from open wetlands to shorelines. Just as geography has presented, the ecology derives i t s co m p l ex b i o d i ve r s i t y f ro m the matrix of two parallel worlds – the terrestrial forest biome and the marine environment. Thus, one of the most biologically productive habitats lies at the meeting point, a mangrove forest that feeds and houses a wide range of benthic, aquatic, and arboreal species. It is essential to all-embracing land and resource planning to thoroughly understand and foster the natural ecosystems that house our lives.

Generally, the dune serves as a natural buffer for the coastal ecosystem. Its form reflects how the ecological phenomenon works on the landscape, such as the ebb and flow of sea level and seasonal wind force. The sea-facing primary dune is very unstable and constantly changes, and the deeper inland the dune becomes more stable. In many upper-income countries, no building codes or regulations shall allow any built structure in the area from the seashore to the secondary dune. Only a small building or temporary structure shall allow between secondary and tertiary dunes.

The buildable area, thus, shall be located behind the tertiary dune.

Primary sand dune closest to the sea shore

- Very unstable dune - Highly active dune movement Secondary sand dune closer to the sea shore

- Unstable dune - Semi-active dune movement Tertiary sand dune farther inland

- More stable - Less active dune movement Quaternary sand dune and even farther dune inland - Stable - No dune movement

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BIODIVERSITY ( F LO R A & FAU N A ) The biodiversity of living creatures in this area is sensitive to both ecological changes and man-made intervention. The area is subject to cyclical movement of sea level.

The natural formation of sand dunes also brings seawater into the back of the sand dune line, making the area the native flora and fauna habitat.

SALINITY

T I DA L & S TO R M S U R G E

Salinity is a major fundamental concern for the selection of materials and plants to be used.

The practical concerns is that the physical arrangement of landscape can sustain to last over time while users can explore how the design is weathered during its real uses. Native plant species from the coastal or tropical forest in the region are the best and simplest option for long-term maintenance and trigger some interest in vernacular landscape.

Living by the sea, one cannot avoid observing unusual changes in sea levels and possible signals of the arrival of coastal inundation.

In landscape architecture, all these concerns are taken into the design program as a preventive framework to protect both people and places.

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Usual tidal Storm or tempest Tsunami

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When a landscape d the calming and insp nature into everyday moment people feel

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e design can blend nspiring influence of day life, it is at that eel ‘at home’.

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The landscape of now is not looking for a philosophical interpretation of the built environment but a warm embrace of simplicity, integrity, and beauty for a better balance.

It cherishes the past, the present and the future by rediscovering the aesthetic and practical potentials we already have and exploring the new possibilities we may yet achieve.

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