Pichit Virankabutra, Deputy Director and Acting Director of the Chiang Mai Office, Creative Economy Agency, Thailand, In conversation with Clay Chandler, Fortune
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00:00Thank You
00:02Welcome, welcome, please. I drink some water to complete the boys work
00:08So just out of curiosity, how many people in the audience have been to Bangkok? Oh
00:14Almost everybody so now let me ask a more specific question. How many people have been to Sukhumvit? Oh
00:24A lot of people okay, almost everybody that's been to Bangkok has been to Sukhumvit
00:27How many people have been to what is this? Shalom? Is that next one the district next door?
00:33Telling cool. Yeah. Yeah, and how many people have been to Charoen Krong? I know this district
00:39One two two, okay. This is gonna be interesting
00:43This is one of the great
00:46revival stories of
00:48Asia and I think it's not as well known as it ought to be Charoen Krong is one of
00:54Bangkok's oldest original
00:57neighborhoods and
00:59competition has been
01:00the leader of this effort to it's kind of fell on hard times for a little while and then
01:06you've been the leader of this effort to try to use design design thinking to
01:12Reinvent it and help breathe the new life into it. And it's a lovely it's a lovely story. And I think it has interesting
01:20Implications for Macau where we are right now and and other cities as well. So let's um
01:27Let's go back a little bit in history and tell me about Charoen Krong and where this neighborhood comes from and what's what's special about it?
01:33So maybe I'm not going back to the very back that we talked behind the stage
01:40Jericho right now is a hundred and sixty years old
01:44road
01:45It was like the first road in Bangkok. So this is like a prime area
01:50It was the place of Bangkok in 160 years ago
01:55Everything was there
01:57The bank was there. The hotel was there. The tram was there. The tallest building was there, which is seven story
02:04so
02:06Everything was right in the middle of Charoen Krong and it carried on until like the past 40 years
02:13Bangkok has expanded gradually into like a mega city right now
02:17If if anyone has visited in Bangkok Bangkok is a mega city. So Charoen Krong was abandoned
02:23It's like
02:24deserted area because most of the houses are Chinese owned and the third generation will will carry on that
02:33the ancestors
02:34Place they won't sell it, but they won't use it. So it's like all over all of the area was closed down a lot
02:42Huh? Okay
02:44I'm gonna try to fill in some of the details here if I get it wrong, you can you can correct me
02:48But a couple of interesting things happened in Asia
02:54In in the
02:561670s we can go back that far one was something that happened in Charoen Krong, which is a
03:02Region that's just up the coast from where we're sitting right now
03:06And it was famous for having people that were very entrepreneurial that were seafaring people
03:11That were great traders and the traded up and down and ships to Southeast Asia
03:15the
03:17Forgive me for you know, maybe too much history, but the
03:20Ming Dynasty, which was Han Chinese collapse. It was overtaken by the Banshees and the Qing Dynasty
03:25and southern China, particularly the area around
03:29Chaozhou was kind of one of the last rebel holdouts of the of the Ming so there was all kinds of instability there
03:35Caused famine poverty and there were a series of natural disasters
03:39So there was pressure on that population to leave and find another place to live
03:44Followed the trade routes down
03:46And and got to Thailand. So in Thailand, this really interesting thing was happening. The Ayutthaya
03:53Dynasty had been toppled by an attack from neighboring Burma and the major general general toxin
04:01Became the king moved the city 50 miles downriver and it was really the beginning of what is now modern
04:08Bangkok
04:10And transformed this farm village into kind of an imperial capital and he was partly Chinese
04:16And he was he needed a coalition of people to keep him
04:20in power
04:21So he reached out to the Chou Chou Chinese from Chaozhou
04:24Who were already?
04:26Providing a lot of food and trade and spices to this new city and he gave them a huge plot of land that became Chinatown
04:33Chowrung krong is the neighborhood that sort of just adjoins
04:38And
04:39it became the center of
04:41Commerce and markets and diplomacy and everything for the city and when finally
04:47Thailand opened up to trade with the West in the 1850s
04:51there was just this flood of Western traders and diplomats and
04:56People that came in and they needed a place to kind of set up shop
04:59And so that's why it became the first location of the first road
05:03Instead of you know traveling around by boat up and down the Chowpraya. They had a road they had a cable car
05:08Lighting on the streets it was spectacular in every respect, but then the investment boom in the 80s
05:1590s and it expanded into other places
05:19Just kind of left this district that it once been of the grandest districts in all of Bangkok behind
05:25So very interesting to me to see so many people still have been to Sukhumvit
05:29But they have not been to the district where it really kind of all all started. So talk to us a little bit about
05:36What happened when the so that Thailand has this very progressive design
05:43Bureaucracy you want to call it that it's an agency called the Thai
05:47Thailand Creativity and Design Center that couldn't pitch it works with and they put their headquarters
05:52In this neighborhood and talk a little bit about that
05:55If you can we'll see if we can get some pictures here so people can so this is like
05:59Yeah, why we I work is the creative creative economy agency, which is government agency
06:05working with 15 creative industries and one of the new mission when we
06:10Relocate ourself from the other side of Sukhumvit Road to this old neighborhood is about district development as lots of various
06:19American cities that trying to revitalize
06:23regenerate
06:25Rundown areas. So this was the initiative from the government. Let's see if we can so this is where I work
06:31Look posh with all the resource center with the view and everything
06:37So this is a spectacular building and what you can see kind of from this side on the kind of lower
06:42The right-hand corner here is that it's it's in it's at the edge of this very curious building
06:47What say something about the the larger building where it's been housed inside?
06:52actually, this is like the Grand Postal building built in
06:571940s and
06:59We it was abandoned actually, maybe I'll go through this
07:03So this is all the other area of the the new banks is there the all the embassies is here
07:11You can click throughout. So this is like the place where everything happens and
07:18for at the area that's like the Grand Postal building that was actually the center of communication to Bangkok at a time and
07:26We are looking at this area that
07:31Survived World War two bombing things like that. And it was the Grand Postal building
07:36For ages, we know the area the area is called the Grand Postal area
07:41huh, so if you call a taxi you
07:45This is the word for the area and when the Grand Postal
07:50when the postal company also
07:52Abandoned the building because the building is too small for the corporate
07:55So they move out and the next slide will see like this is what what is was abandoned at the time
08:02So no one operated it was like really abandoned with with with broken windows and everything
08:09so in
08:112017 we relocate ourself and we
08:15regenerate we regenerate a building in we saw the building and just now what we've seen is the
08:22Thailand Creative and Design Center inside with the Resource Center with all the services for the creative industries and
08:28From this on this is the pinnacle of the area that will be shifting
08:34projects for
08:35Revitalizing terrain cooling area. It's a wonderful art deco building that's been designed by local
08:42Architects really quite unique when you get inside it
08:44Yeah
08:44So talk to us a little bit well about what you did when you moved into this neighborhood to kind of figure it out when we
08:51Move in it's like as I mentioned, it's a ghost town. We can't find even lunch. It's difficult. You have to go like an hour
08:59Like you have you you have to go by taxi out of town out of the area to to get lunch things like that
09:06So the first thing that we done is data collecting
09:10So we went knocking all the doors to see whether this place is a commercial area, which is a residential area
09:17Where's the hotel was the mosque the church the?
09:21Temple so we collect data to see whether how vacant is it?
09:26How is it occupied things like that during the the eight years? We were just kind of figuring out who your neighbors are
09:32I mean, yeah classic design
09:34Process. So what are we looking at here? I'm sorry
09:37This is like for this thing
09:39I think it's it's parallel when we collect all the the datas we found that lots of places are run down a building
09:47so it's like a
09:49Project that we were looking at strategy of placemaking. So
09:53Eventually during the year, we will try to approach new places to see whether it could be used
09:59To see whether it's is engine that what the structure is in is good enough for for rental things like that
10:06So we try to connect and and maybe like in design week
10:10We will try to rent out the area to see whether it's possible to to give an idea that buildings could be used
10:18Okay, great. So what are we looking at here? So this little
10:23logo
10:24In brown here in the brown circle made in Charon Krong is this thing came a bit later?
10:30Because when when turn chrome was when we relocated we have we run
10:35Design week in the area to prove that that's part potential and possibilities of people coming in
10:41the thing that we found is the
10:4430 years old 50 years old 80 years old
10:48Businesses in the area could not sell things to to the new visitors because there's a younger generation
10:55Coming in so the made in turn Google was was imposed to as a design center
11:00We have designer in our left hand. We have the old business on our right hand
11:05So we meet them up so come up with new services new products that were relevant to new visitors
11:11So the made in turn goon was like implement
11:14I think the fourth or the fifth year right now and they create new products for new generations new visitors, right?
11:21So you have all these little kind of mom-and-pop businesses, right? Yeah that are in the neighborhood. They're producing cool things
11:26Yeah, but they don't have much marketing. Yeah, some of them right now online
11:31Some of them now in department store because we have like a business development department that works with them
11:39Great like that. So interesting though. So you go to these people and say hey design marketing design design
11:45It won't work. If this one you you need to to look over the whole journey of
11:51businesses things like that to tell us about these portraits because I think that this story is really quite touching and and
11:58Revealing the district branding in a way. I believe everyone working on on on regenerating district
12:05The working with people is one of the toughest the community is the toughest thing
12:09So we came up with an idea that how to break and I the break ice breaking for for people
12:16So the idea of the portrait of Turin cool was imposing in this this this this
12:23context
12:24We it's an easy project
12:27we film
12:3080 families in Turin cool area and we use the photos as a display in large
12:38public area across Turin cool and
12:41We have like a content of it. What that that that we could could
12:47Introduce them to the public
12:48So this is like things that people haven't expected that there will be displayed in in public
12:55Area in large in large
12:58Places things like that and some of the I think half of the family that that was in this program
13:04They didn't have a family photos of over 30 years
13:08So it's like is it is a is a little story of small family
13:13but it it made them have a sense of ownership they have a sense of place and
13:20Right now when we would like to do anything with them
13:22It's easy because they know us we know them and they're proud that they are people of Turin cool. That is so great
13:29So Andrew earlier this morning Andrew Lazzaro
13:32Said something that I thought was quite profound was you know
13:35The importance of design helping people feel seen and this is essentially what you did
13:40You went took the portraits of these families
13:42You help them kind of brand themselves and you validate and celebrated them. Yes that won their trust
13:48Yeah, I think really important for us
13:51Trust is a new currency for us
13:53It's a currency that we we used to trade because they have to trust us
13:58we have to trust them and and this thing helps us to develop new projects because
14:04What we are doing is a people centric is a is a community centric
14:10Everything we do there will be the people that we will work with
14:14So they need to trust us and we need to trust them in a way
14:17So instead of being suspicious of your motives, they became your your allies in this project because before that this is quite important
14:25Because this was before we relocated we have that co-creator and can we talk to?
14:31500 people over the span of eight months to see whether what are the needs?
14:36Why are they expecting what other and met needs to see whatever they they would like to see a design center moving into their neighborhood
14:44And you really work hard enough sort of integrate the different
14:48segments of the neighborhood as well
14:49Yeah, it's a span of a hundred one point five kilometers framework. And actually if you see the green
14:56Stroke some of it was redesigned to to connect the small alleys because most of the opportunities are on the main
15:04Rotor and grow right but that's the greens the green small
15:08Alleys was like for people less resource and less less fortunate to so this I think we are helping them
15:15Make it easier for people to circulate in the in the neighborhood now talk about the role of design week the design week
15:21Actually, it's it's like this
15:26Conference that it's about
15:28experimenting it's about a laboratory we use a design week different from maybe the design week in other countries because
15:35We look at as a lab
15:37so it's a laboratory that we will try to see whether in this 1.7 kilometers area, which
15:46Normally, no one comes. Yeah is a ghost town with a design week with a program with with
15:51With everything does people come so the first edition of the Bangor design week
15:57catches like
15:59400,000 people during the nine days
16:01So it's it made people
16:05Amazed with with the number and people were in the area
16:08So it built trust in a way for businesses to maybe relocated themselves
16:14projects in like like these that we're looking at like
16:19Park on the on the river things like that. It's about
16:22Issues on on green space in Thailand. That's in Bangkok. It's really
16:27so
16:28Design week is like to open conversation with with the governor with people who will look
16:34No place for green space on land. Yeah be green space. They're almost like pop-ups and yeah installation
16:40That's all pops up
16:41It's it's meant to to be a lab a kind of lab to see whether people come in
16:47some of the programs for communities like a
16:49Community karaoke, so everyone could could sing together things like that
16:55Great
16:56So really changing the kind of mood and spirit of so you talked a little bit about lighting and the lighting
17:02I think everyone has in every country
17:05I believe lighting installation and lighting festival is always there
17:08but for us we we don't look at as it as a lighting festival is the frame of
17:16The brief we're looking at how a small alley could compete with terrain groom also
17:21So the lighting was plot as as a
17:25Answer to the question that how small alleys could compete with main road things like that
17:30So it was displayed along or even with this
17:34this for us is the
17:36the
17:38the great grandfather of everything because
17:42Back then eight years ago Thailand urban designers never had their project realized
17:48In in the city and this was like it it took two years in the design week to fetch
17:57What it called approval from the BMA the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's because right now we have
18:04prototype lab see how people react things like that and we we
18:09Presented to the mayor and the mayor says okay for the first year. What's next the next year we we have
18:17It prototype as an with the material things like that
18:20so right now it's like the great-grandfather project with with the government which
18:27built a bridge for
18:29designers creative urban designers to work and realize their project in the city, so these these
18:36Signposting, you know how outside or helping outsiders to get to the neighborhood find their way around, you know, really quite
18:43Amazing. I'm gonna skip through this
18:46And maybe I'm just gonna put up this last slide
18:50So you were saying something to be interesting the other day that this was mainly meant to be something that was to
18:56Open Charoen Krong back up to the local Thai community
18:59But what's interesting is I just pulled, you know, we pulled these last night from from the Western media
19:05This is kind of now the Brooklyn of Bangkok, right?
19:08look at these headlines Bangkok Charoen Krong Road city's oldest district now hippest as a makeover that brings new hotels and
19:14bars galleries and street art
19:16This one at the bottom is the New York Times
19:19Travel magazine a huge spread there with some amazing photos, you know, you've gotten all kinds of great
19:25Press in the global media as a result your efforts
19:29We were down there a few months ago and visited
19:33Kunjakrit the design center is spectacular
19:37and there is a wealth of cool galleries and hip hotels and
19:42Cafes all kinds of Michelin starred restaurants now within just sort of a stone's throw of the design center
19:49It's really cool. Actually, we didn't expect and an approach from international
19:55but actually we work actually we're working with the community and see however it
20:02Creativities and design could prove for the community the social and the economy
20:07So that was what we the real purpose and attempt that that we were trying to achieve
20:13Well, it sounds like a lot of things came together at once but to be able to kind of have a revival of that magnitude
20:19And in just a you know, two or three years three years three years amazing
20:23and it's very encouraging case study for I think lots of other cities and
20:29You know design may only have been a part of that
20:31but what I love about this story is that you can really see that the conscious efforts that you made to understand the community and
20:38Then to kind of reach out and see what can we do to help them and use design?
20:41To make this place more accessible have been a spectacular success. So congratulations
20:46Conviction. Thank you so much for joining us
20:48Thank you