CITY PULSE | best of bkk
Pa Nai Krung
Increasing Bangkok’s diminishing green spaces by Morgan JT
I
t can be said that the City of Angels is in dire need of more green space. According to the data collected by the Environment Office, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) in 2013, it is reported that Bangkok has 5.01 sqm green area per capita (calculated based on Bangkok population of 5,702,595 from 28,579,009 sqm green area). Luckily, many organisations are taking up the challenges with numerous green projects in the city much like this one—the awardwinning Metro Forest Project by PTT Public Company Limited which received LEED Platinum NC green building certification. 14 | JUL/AUG 2019
The project transformed 19,200 sqm abandoned land on Sukhapiban 2 Road into an educational centre, public park and outdoor exhibition space with more than 60,000 trees of more than 279 unique species planted in over 75% of the area. It was to commemorate HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s 60th birthday while raising environmental awareness and educate visitors about local forest ecology. The construction began in May 2013 and the park was open to the public in 2015. Then PTT CEO, Dr Pailin Chuchottaworn adopted the afforestation method invented
by an award-winning Japanese botanist, Dr Akira Miyawaki. It involves planting multiple types of trees per square metre to create a forest-like ecology. This helps shorten the maturing time considerably from what could have taken eight to ten years down to only three to five. This is but one of many PTT’s brainchild projects who has been bangkok101.com
