Bangkok city planning

[Kalorymetr]

I walk in Bangkok everyday and it's clear - the city planning does not exists here.

There are two questions that come to my mind, though.

What discussion led to the BTS being what it is on the Sukhumvit road. I mean it clearly made buildings nearest to the road unlivable due to no sunlight and vibration. Whenever I walk along sukvhumvit I have a feeling like in blade runner, where the poorest live on the ground in the dirt and shadows and the more rich live in the high-rise buildings and have flying cars.

It's very ugly and overwhelming, because its above most of the buildings.

 

Second questions is: How is it possible that they keep building high rise condo buildings in the middle of housing estates? There are very nice villa like houses around my 24 story condo building, these are not poor people, how and why they let this happen.

[roquefort]

The first rule in Thailand is that money talks. The second rule is......don't forget the first rule.

 

If developers are prepared to pay enough money to the landowners and city "planners" (even using that word makes me laugh) anything is constructible. No-one will throw up their arms and say "how can you spoil such a beautiful area with your ugly monstrosity of a condo".

 

Example: the old British Embassy in Wireless Road was a magnificent colonial-style villa built on land given to the UK by the King in the 19th century. it was knocked down a couple of years ago because it sat on the most valuable piece of real estate in Bangkok....... to make way for a much-needed shopping mall.

 

It always amazes me that a country that can build such superb temples has no taste whatsoever when it comes to building anything else (and zero concern for architectural heritage).

[PatOngo]

18 hours ago, Kalorymetr said:

There are very nice villa like houses around my 24 story condo building, these are not poor people, how and why they let this happen.

Kaching, kaching! ????

[KhaoYai]

Yes they have a planning system but it fails to have much effect. Cash in the No.1 factor but that is starting to come back and bite them.  The current flood relief project in Bangkok for example, has cost billions more than it should because of diversions made necessary by adhoc developments that have been allowed even after the flood relief system was announced. A combination of no joined up thinking and corruption.. 

[wordchild]

There is some planning going on in the background, as I understand it.

1) there is a citywide plan , which includes zoning ambitions area by area. This was redone ,I believe,  a couple of years ago and has created some issues, eg some areas which were previously low density residential were redefined as high density.

2)There are  some  strange quirks within the planning guidelines, this can create behaviour by developers and some odd/inappropriate  designs. eg width of the soi is important also setback from the main road is a consideration (this varies with height , hence the pointed or blade-like design on certain buildings).Also extra density can be granted to developers who hit certain city targets eg nearer to public transport plus a commitment to a reduction of allocated car parking. This can create the potential for some serious high rise condos which are nearer to say a BTS station, even when they are deep into some of the smaller sois around eg sukhumvit. 
it’s a good thing we hit this recession otherwise there could have been some really ugly developments going up around Bangkok. With a bit of luck there will be something rethinking of the city planning ahead of the next upturn!

[wordchild]

Also on the BTS, remember it came along after all the original shophouses had been there for many years, little consideration was given to issues such as light and atmosphere of the area. I lived in Ploenchit pre the BTS construction and I can say that the character of the area completely changed post the BTS construction and that station which dwarfs everything else.

only a couple of year ago city hall wanted to build an elevated section of roadway from Rama 9 all the way along Asoke coming down somewhere along Asoke Montri near the park there. Can you imagine what that would have done to what is a fairly narrow road  and the atmosphere of the Asoke area?This would also likely have entailed the removal/relocation of the walkway crossing Asoke at the Sukhumvit junction. There was a well organised local campaign and the planning was suspended, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that one back on the agenda , at some point in the future.

[wordchild]

On tall buildings in the middle of large pieces of land such as say a Moo Baan., again this is a quirk of the planning system and also the density target under the new city plans. High rise condos can be built in some rather odd locations based on the distance from the main road ( the further away , the higher). This can even be the case on the smaller sois off Suk. so I f you have a significant land size well set back from the nearest road then, under current planning there is the potential for an major sized development eg the (dreadful looking) Millennium Towers on Sukhumvit soi 20.

[bangon04]

If the predictions are true, Bangkok will soon be only high rise - everything else will be under water. 

[goldenbrwn1]

On 1/12/2021 at 2:56 PM, Kalorymetr said:

Whenever I walk along sukvhumvit I have a feeling like in blade runner, where the poorest live on the ground in the dirt and shadows and the more rich live in the high-rise buildings and have flying cars.

That’s what I loved about Bangkok when I first came here. The mayhem the madness of it all. And the Blade Runner feeling is spot on . That’s exactly how I first explained Bangkok to friends.

[LukKrueng]

11 hours ago, bangon04 said:

If the predictions are true, Bangkok will soon be only high rise - everything else will be under water. 

For the last 30 years or so they've been saying that Bangkok will be under water in 5 years....

[Kalorymetr]

Thanks for the discussion, I was expecting trolling, but who knew ????

 

On 1/13/2021 at 9:16 PM, wordchild said:

Also on the BTS, remember it came along after all the original shophouses had been there for many years, little consideration was given to issues such as light and atmosphere of the area. I lived in Ploenchit pre the BTS construction and I can say that the character of the area completely changed post the BTS construction and that station which dwarfs everything else.

only a couple of year ago city hall wanted to build an elevated section of roadway from Rama 9 all the way along Asoke coming down somewhere along Asoke Montri near the park there. Can you imagine what that would have done to what is a fairly narrow road  and the atmosphere of the Asoke area?This would also likely have entailed the removal/relocation of the walkway crossing Asoke at the Sukhumvit junction. There was a well organised local campaign and the planning was suspended, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that one back on the agenda , at some point in the future.

This is very interesting, so it seems, they don't care about anything at all. If they want a road, they will build it even it it will make trendy area complete <deleted>hole.

 

I don't understand why they choose Sukhumvit to have the BTS line and not some other street/empty plot of land. There are already plenty of buses on this road and only thing that is needed is a proper bus lane. Now all the traffic from all the side streets concentrates on this one street and we can all see how it looks like. It will only get worse with more condos.

[AmySeeker]

The planners are slowly turning one of the most vibrant cities in the world to another souless Chinese city full of condos.

 

I miss street food, street vendors, the crazy quirky charms that made this city amazing. Sanitized and gentrified is hurting this city. 

[josephbloggs]

15 hours ago, Kalorymetr said:

I don't understand why they choose Sukhumvit to have the BTS line and not some other street/empty plot of land. 

Yeah, they definitely should have built the BTS somewhere empty that no-one wanted to go to, that would have been much better.  I mean what a strange idea to have the main line go through the heart of the city.

[Kalorymetr]

Yes, this is how you make the area attractive again. Sukhumvit I assume had been popular before as well and as I said dedicated bus lane would do