Phase 1- "People"

The first phase had the goal of understanding the community, not only the physical spaces but also the users and the way they connect between each other and with the spaces, in order to recognize sites of interest within the community.

Getting to know Potter and P Chan and letting them guide us through community and the people

WHAT WE SAW : On the other side of the community has a railway passing through, with people living the houses along it

The pocket green space along the very narrow walkway inside the community

WHAT WE SAW : The boxing court under the expressway, open for everyone but most are children. Some were not there to practice boxing but just to play and run around

In the first week we started interviewing people from locks 1-3. During this process we had to modulate and adapt the questions, along with our understanding about the environment, in order to collect as much information as we thought it would be helpful.

We made the questions to residents of the community and, in general, we tried to understand why people were in Khlong Toei, if they moved in or if they were born inside the community; the occupation; the level of studies; their daily routines; the likes and dislikes about Khlong Toei; their wishes for the community in the future; history or stories about the area and also if they were interested in joining the project, or even if they had suggestions of where and how to intervene.

Meeting with Musa and his family. Musa telling us about the history and the life of KlongToey, the flooding problems it has and how he had done to solve it so far

As part of workshop 1, we decided it was also important to widen our field of work and come in contact with some of the NGO´s working in Khlong Toei. We have followed the same process as with the residents and have created a set of questions that could help us understanding the organisation’s values, work, goals, and possibilities for future cooperation.

With the interviews we understood that locks1-3 are divided more or less into five areas with “invisible” limits, the Rotary court, the Library and football court 2, the Boxing court, the Tonsai area and the Budha image area. People circulate mainly around their area, not using other spaces inside the community. Due to the high density and the lack of space inside the private spaces, the streets are used not just for circulation but for gathering, working as a social network between residents. With this phase we introduced ourselves, we started to find some reference points, not just physical spaces, but some people interested in collaborate, willing to participate in our activities and that allowed us to get to know them better.

As we developed this phase, we felt the necessity of knowing more, the necessity to get to know this “areas” inside the community; the habits of people from different ages and different locks in order to understand in more detail how people use the spaces inside Khlong Toei and how they relate between each other. For that we came up with a second phase “routes”.



From walking along.....and what we found......

The very sacred shrine that most people respect, called Jau-ra-ke shrine (means Crocodile shrine)on another side of the communityand the building nearby

Many Internet and Games shops around, and a clinic

Houses and shops under the expressway, on another side of the community

Checking if there were interesting materials that were easy to find near or inside the community for future use and here what we found!

Where they throw........