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Kotchakorn Voraakhom

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Kotchakorn Voraakhom
Born1978 (age 45–46)
NationalityThai
Alma mater
OccupationArchitect
AwardsTED fellow
Buildings
Projects
  • Phra Pok Klao Skypark
  • Thammasat University Park

Kotchakorn Voraakhom (Thai: กชกร วรอาคม, born 1978) is a Thai landscape architect and chief executive officer of Porous City Network, a social enterprise that looks to increase urban resilience in Southeast Asia. She is also the founder of the Koungkuey Design Initiative, which works with communities to rebuild public spaces. She campaigns for more green space in cities and is a 2018 TED fellow.

Education

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Voraakhom loved the flooding in Thailand as a child.[2] She studied at Chulalongkorn University.[3] She earned her bachelor's degree in landscape architecture in 2001, when she was awarded a medal for exceptional academic performance. She completed her graduate studies at Harvard University.[4][5] During graduate school she co-founded the Koungkuey Design Initiative (KDI), a nonprofit design organisation that helps communities develop their neighbourhoods.[6] She returned to Thailand in 2006.[4]

Career

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Kotchakorn has taught landscape design at Chulalongkorn University since 2010. She is founder and chief executive at Landprocess, a landscape architecture firm in Bangkok.[7] She has been named one of Thailand's best architects, one who is fostering social change.[8] In 2015 Kotchakorn worked on the Thailand Pavilion at the Milan Expo.[9] The pavilion showcases the role of water in Thai agriculture.[9] She was awarded a fellowship from The Asia Foundation in 2016.[10] She opened the Siam Green Sky roof garden in Siam Square in 2015.[11]

In 2017, she founded the Porous City Network.[4] Bangkok, a city of over eight million people, is only 1.5 metres above sea level.[2] One of her goals is to increase Bangkok's resilience to climate change, especially flooding, and, to this end, she has received fellowships from Echoing Green and the Equity Initiative.[12][13] In a TED talk on February 11, 2019, on how to transform sinking cities into landscapes that fight floods, Kotchakorn states that this project was not to get rid of flooding but it is to live with flooding as flooding is Thailand's new norm.[14] She won a Chulalongkorn University design competition for a park that increases urban resilience by capturing runoff, the 28 rai (4.5 ha; 11 acres) Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park.[15][16][17] The park is built on a three degree incline[18] and contains artificial wetlands and underground cisterns that can hold one million gallons (3.8 million litres) of water.[19] Kotchakorn was inspired by King Bhumibol Adulyadej's concept of creating kaem ling, 'monkey cheeks', to capture rainwater runoff for later use.[20] In 2019, she opened a 91 rai (14.6 ha; 36 acres) park at Thammasat University.[17] In 2021, Landprocess-designed Chong Nonsi Canal Park opened.[21]

In December 2019, Thammasat University's Rangsit campus opened Asia's largest urban rooftop garden. The 7,000 m2 space designed by Kotchakorn is intended to help offset some of the impacts of climate change, such as flooding.[7]

Accolades

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In 2018, Kotchakorn was named a TED fellow.[22] She has written for City Green.[23] She was part of the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.[24] In 2019, Kotchakorn was one of three Thais named by Time on its "Time 100 Next 2019" list. She was listed under the category of "Innovator".[25] The following year she was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.[26] In 2020, The United Nations honored her as a winner of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Awards, Women for Results.[27]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ กชกร วรอาคม เป็นภูมิสถาปนิกไทยซึ่งติด 1 ใน 15 Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change ของนิตยสาร TIME เมื่อไม่กี่วันที่ผ่านมา, Website:https://readthecloud.co/ .สืบค้นเมื่อ 07-10-2562
  2. ^ a b "City park or flood defense? How about both". CNN Style. 13 November 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  3. ^ Kongrut, Anchalee (4 July 2015). "Reading landscapes". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Yeoh, Neil. "How Architecture Is Tackling Increasing Floods From Climate Change". Forbes. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  5. ^ "Delegates — Yenching Social Innovation Forum". Yenching Social Innovation Forum. Archived from the original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  6. ^ "What We Do". Koungkuey Design Initiative (KDI). Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Thammasat sprouts Asia's biggest rooftop farm". Bangkok Post. Reuters. 10 December 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  8. ^ DOTV l Design On Television (22 April 2014), ASA Change_Road, retrieved 23 November 2018
  9. ^ a b "Milan Expo 2015: OBA Unveils Designs for Thai Pavilion". ArchDaily. 3 May 2014. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  10. ^ "Kotchakorn Voraakhom". The Asia Foundation. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  11. ^ "Thailand: Siam Green Sky has opened their largest Rooftop Garden". Asia Green Buildings. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  12. ^ "Our Fellows". The Equity Initiative. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  13. ^ "Kotchakorn Voraakhom". Echoing Green. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  14. ^ How to transform sinking cities into landscapes that fight floods | Kotchakorn Voraakhom, retrieved 13 March 2022
  15. ^ Kongrut, Anchalee (21 October 2017). "Bangkok's secret weapon in war against floods". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  16. ^ "Bangkok has designed a park for the coming age of flooded cities". Prevention Web. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  17. ^ a b Fullerton, Jamie (3 October 2018). "As Bangkok sinks, could this anti-flood park be the answer?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  18. ^ "Meet Thailand's secret weapon in climate change battle". Bangkok Post. Agence France-Presse. 2 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  19. ^ "CU Centenary Park". Chulalongkorn University. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  20. ^ "How this Bangkok park is helping to save the sinking city from flooding". Water Source. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  21. ^ "A touch of Seoul in Chong Nonsi". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
  22. ^ "Meet the 2018 class of TED Fellows and Senior Fellows". TED Blog. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  23. ^ "Nature for Urban Minds". www.nparks.gov.sg. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  24. ^ "GEB Bangkok | Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp". Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  25. ^ "3 Thais make 'Time' rising stars list". Bangkok Post. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  26. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2020: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. 23 November 2020. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  27. ^ "Kotchakorn Voraakhom". Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts — Washington University in St. Louis. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
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