References

city, which mainly focuses on the road network, has transformed some waterways into lands and roads. The waterway network has been disappeared (Tachakitkachorn, 2010). Some roads have been built to align with the existing waterway, but most roads constructed after 1978 are not correlated with the waterway system. As a result, the disconnections between the waterway network itself, waterway and roads, waterway, and new urban development can be seen on the urban fabric of Bangkok. We can also speculate the property plots and the small alleys system converted from the orchard system pattern. The coexisting of these physical layers of spatial configurations can be interpreted as a palimpsest when we see it from the aerial view of the city like De Certeau explain the view from the 110th floor of the World Trade Center. Nevertheless, some waterways still survive and operate as transportation routes; for example, In Khlong Saen Saeb, flowing from the old town to the city centre, there is a boat service serving 60,000 people a day. This synergy, which might be unintended between Khlong, road, and urban development, provides alternative public transportation to the city.

The repeated superimposition of meanings and memories in the case of the Democracy Monument illustrates the multiple layers related to political power and resistance. The coexist of the Ratchadamnoen Avenue and the monument has created a paradoxical meaning layer without erasing ones that belonged to each of them. Furthermore, the invisible layer, such as meaning, also brings real physical activities to the site: with its democratic meaning and without democratic spatial characteristic, people see it as a symbol of the resistance and set it as an important point to held political activities against the dictatorship. In this case, the meaning memory and history of the site reflect its identical characteristic of place as Huyssen (2003) described. The study of Pom Maha Kan Community demonstrates the freezing value of history and the attempt to purify the area that does not fit with the ideal concept of value and aesthetic, which again were produced by the authority. The strong image of Pom Maha Kan seems to be a harbinger to the community. Pom Maha Kan Community was removed from the urban surface and disappeared from any levels of eye-view, even though the changes were hidden behind the city wall. The layer of the community has become invisible; it was transformed into memory and might turn to be history. If we only see it from a top-down view, the surviving layers of the fortress and the wall and the new layer of the public park will represent a seductive image of new public space without any traces of the erased community. In this case, it does not give a clue of how the historical symbol and the community can live together, but it addresses some issues that should be considered before any actions have been taken.

To return to the beginning questions, I would say it is possible that by using the urban palimpsest framework, we can reveal the creation of a place where past and present live and work together in the case of Bangkok context, even though many factors in this context pragmatically deter the synergy of the multiple layers such as the authorities, the political conflicts, and the uncontrol developments. For another question that still remains, I would again assert that the palimpsest framework plays as a tool to disclose the interconnection or irrelevance of the complex layers of Bangkok, and it needs more interdisciplinary frameworks to collaborate in order to create a future urbanity with the coexisting of the past.

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Bangkok Urban Palimpsest:

Traces of Complexity

Dissertation by Kitti Chupanich

MAArchitecture and Urbanism

Manchester School ofArchitecture