art4d

visited the offices of art4d magazine yesterday with fee. had a nice chat with khun dtoey and khun dtii. some topics included:

* Post-It City: by Barcelona architect (friend of dtii), getting at some sense of 'micro-agency' that I was trying to describe for my ghosts project. which reminded us of

* changebangkok.com: open competition for transforming bangkok. have picked 10 'winners' from submissions thus far, next step is redesign (?) then implementation...

* Hopewell Project: the first major city project to go dormant. consists of a series of reinforced concrete arches that stretch from city center to (old) Don Muang airport. Don Muang is slated for obsolescence, with bangkok's airport needs satisfied by the new Suvarnabhumi airport (now (in)famous for its closure by the yellow-shirts)

Dtii mentioned that including Hopewell and Don Muang into the 'ghost' category for the project might enliven the possible interventions, moving away from a category that only contains empty towers.

* the role of Ginger* and family: told the others that my advisors weren't that into the notion of royal family involvement as hypothetical agent for the project. but we all agreed that, yes, there might be something to a 'sufficiency economy' tower. what that would contain, what form it would take is anyone's guess (not unlike the economic proposal itself)

* Chula Dept of Housing/Real Estate (?- rough translation) - might be a good resourse for plans, etc of 1990's towers.

IS THIS THING ON......?

there will be thinking out loud, so bring ear plugs.

i'm attempting to kick around thoughts on the abandoned buildings of bangkok. these 'ghost buildings' were all left vacant due to the economic crisis in 1997, and remain vacant today. in fact, it was real estate speculation in bangkok that initiated the chain reaction that became the Asian Economic Crisis of 97.

so it's here, at ground zero, that i am wondering just how one might inhabit a burst bubble. this year's mortgage/financial crisis offers new ghosts all over the world, so perhaps they'll be some level of transferability of the tactics taken in bkk.

i am starting with a notion of 'micro-agency'. this labels a process in which hundreds/thousands of desires collectively shape program and growth of form within the abandoned shells. so, rather than one developer replicating a monoculture (with one evaporated pile of cash), we have e unibus plurum.