Vitchapol Taerattanachai
Thailand
Loy Kratong Revival
Vernacular architecture was described as an architecture for specific people and culture in a specific area. In Thailand, there is a beautiful ritual that happens once a year called Loy Kratong. Due to rapidly growth of population, the number of kratong in just Bangkok was over 800,000 pieces, which severely harm environment. An aim of this project is to change an impact on environment and to preserve the tradition, which the architecture is a tool.
The ritual, Loy Kratong, is now reinterpreted and located at Victory Monument, Bangkok. On the full moon of November is when the ritual is performed, people letting off kratong on this elevated platform, but the reinvented kratong is made of clay and embedded with plant seeds. The shinning kratong on the water eventually erodes, and the light gets dim and fade away. After a few days, the water eventually evaporated, and it’s time for new sprouts. The ritual space became a green space and an above space is also provided for activities. Months has passed and now the green are all grown, and before the ritual starts, the plants are relocated to other places, then the water fills the space again.
The architecture changes the effects created by kratong by taking the benefit of the tradition to create this interactive architecture. And it serves as an architecture for Loy Kratong that never happens before, which it can be considered as a new vernacular of this region. Even if a appearance does not look like one, but it was planned concerning tropical climate like traditional Thai architecture. Due to the growth of demands, the project is required to grow accordingly, which is the initial idea of this modular system.
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