Kanikar Rattanapridakul
Waraluk Pansuwan
Michael Paripol Trangtongchit
Chamnarn Tirapas
Architects and Educators
Bangkok

Submission: Tsunami Rehabilitation: Thung-War Mogen Village, Pung Nga, Thailand.  
Co-organized by Association of Siamese Architects, Community Organization Development Institute (CODI); and School of Architecture and Design, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi.

The tsunami disaster that hit the southern part of Thailand in 2004 affected six provinces: Ranong, Pung-Nga, Phuket, Trang, Krabi, and Satul. Great amounts of help were needed to ease the situation. One specific need was to provide temporary shelters and permanent houses for the residents of these provinces.

National emergency teams that included architects, engineers, contractors, academia, and government agencies were established and created short and long term rehabilitation plans. Collaborating agencies included the Association of Siamese Architects (ASA) (the host), a number of architecture schools, and government agencies such as Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning, Council of Engineers (COE), and Community Organization Development Institute (CODI). This assembly aimed at a number of different, yet interconnected, concerns such as reducing redundancy of efforts, setting up a working system and teams, and maximizing efficiency for the teams to get the best benefits to the victims.

As a working team, ASA and CODI invited many architecture schools to discuss the assistance and development plans. As a result, the concepts of the plans were focused on economic and social sustainable design, culturally-based design, and community-participation-based design. Consequently, teams of architecture students and professors were sent out to design master plans and housing developments for the victim communities.

Within this cooperation, the School of Architecture and Design (SoA+D) from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) was in charge of two different locations in Pung-Nga province, each with different missions. The first location is Num Kem village where the mission was to design a community master plan. The second location is Thung Wah village -- which is a Moklen village (a sea gypsy community) – where the objectives were to design a community master plan and build a prototypical house for the village.

Nine third year architecture students, one architect, and three instructors initially were sent to Thung Wah village. Later, a supporting team consisting of an architect, engineer, contractor, and four carpenters volunteer joined the effort to design a community master plan and build a prototype house. These two projects took four weeks to accomplish.


Bios:

Kanikar Ratanapridakul (team leader) initially trained in interior design at Southern Illinois University. She graduated from SCI-Arc and credits a theory class taught by Joan Copjec as instilling in her “the need to de-school, re-learn and define for herself an ethical politic for architectural practice.” Following work at several U.S. offices, including mOrphosis, she returned to Thailand, permanently, in 1995. In April 2004 she founded her own practice—Spacetime Architects—in Bangkok. New Directions in Tropical Asian Architecture (2005) features three recent projects—House U3, Shared House, and P3 House—and quotes R’Kul’s career maxim: “How to be useful.” In 2004 the Association of Siamese Architects honored her with an Outstanding Architects Award in the Young Architects category. She is on the faculty at Changmai University and King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi and teaches studios, theory seminars, and serves on thesis committees.

Waraluk Pansuwan is the Chairperson of the Department of Architecture at King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi and teaches upper level design studios. Her academic background includes an undergraduate degree in interior design from Chulalongkorn University, M.S. Interior Design from Pratt Institute, and a MArch from Columbia University (2001). Pansuwan has lectured at Shinawatra University, Assumption University, Thammasat University, and Kasembundit University, and worked as an interior designer, architect, and design consultant in New York and Bangkok.

Michael Paripol Trangtongchit earned a BArch from Chulalongkorn University and a MArch from Illinois Institute of Technology. He joined King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in 1996 and teaches architectural acoustics. Trangtongchit served on a number of competition juries and participated in master planning, urban design, transportation, renovation, and interiors projects throughout Thailand. He is the Director of the Community of Desirable Environment (Bangkok CoDE: http://www.bangkokcode.com/).

Chamnarn Tirapas earned a BArch from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi and a MArch from Ball State University (2003). He participated in CapAsia III in 2003, studying in India, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia. Tirapas returned to KMUTT in 2003 where he teaches studios, building materials and construction, research methods, technical drawings, and serves as thesis advisor.

Student Team
1. Ms.Sirijit Chumueng (Sine)
2. Ms.Wealika Suewathana (Noi-Naa)
3. Ms.Kitiya Puangpee (Bew)
4. Ms.Sudapim Piraban (Waan)
5. Ms.Vichuda Khumsorn (Ann)
6. Mr.Pharuehad Choomsaenghiran (Had)
7. Mr.Danut Wasuwat (No)
8. Mr.Pisanu Mhokprakhon (Aut)
9. Mr.Pee Chaivichian (Pee)
Instructor Team
1. Ms. Kanikar Rattanapridakul (Architect)
2. Ms. Waraluk Pansuwan (Instructor)
3. Mr. Michael Paripol Tangtrongchit (Instructor)
4. Mr. Chamnarn Tirapas (Instructor)
Supporting Team
1. Mr. Wirote Teesalee (Architect)
2. Mr. Boonlert Chanvithikul (Contractor)
3. Mr. Veerasak Hen-Prasert (Engineer)
4. Mr. Jamnien Munkit (Carpenter)
5. Mr. Nirute Munkit (Carpenter)
6. Mr. Autcha Sinsorn (Carpenter)
7. Mr. Thanaporn Sinsorn (Carpenter)
Community Cooperation Team
1. Mr. Kometh
2. Mr. Klong (Moklen villager)
3. Mr. Hong Kla-Talae (Moklen villager)
4. Mr. Samuth Nawaluk (Moklen villager)

"Thailand, tsunami, 2004: 7,500 houses damaged or destroyed"
“30,000 Thai Fisherman lose livelihoods, says UN Assessment,” United Nations Development Programme, January 7, 2005, HYPERLINK "http://www.undp.or.th/whatsnew/fishermen_tsunami.html" (accessed February 1, 2006)