Bangkok, กรุงเทพมหานคร, or otherwise 'city of angels' with a population of approximately 14 million people within the metropolitan area is a dynamic, never ending, and never stopping city.
Skytrain - Chatuchak market
Bangkok
Street food market
Fast growing with friendly people, tropical weather, colours, temples, canals, food markets, traffic jams, shopping malls, Bangkok has a busy life style which characterizes its unique essense.
Tuck-tuck
Wat Po Temple
Canal - Wanthonlang District
The pace of growth in Bangkok reflects high levels of urbanisation supportingthe vision of becoming a world-class global city and a competitive financial hub in South East Asia. Such vision and growth has generated a disparity in Bangkok's population in terms of income and access to secure land and housing. Slums or informal settlements are the predominant housing options for the urban poor in Bangkok.
Access to secure land and housing for the urban poor is continously affected by rising land and housing prices, the promotion of land uses with high return on property investment such as commercial development, rural-to-urban migration, and population growth.
It is here where my journey started as a urban planning master student in a new city with a different culture and language. Here I found myself in search for answers to questions about planning practices that could find a way to transform the lives of poor women and men, boys and girls, and move closer to a more socially just vision of the city.
