The Storytellers Behind the Scenes: Creating a Unique Community in Bangkok
Landscape architects are storytellers who shape the landscapes in which we live, and the work we do is broad. We often collaborate with a team of architects, engineers and specialists to design places for people to live (like your neighborhood) and larger-scale places for communities to live (like public parks).
Several years ago, we were approached to join a team of storytellers like no other. And although we didn’t know it at the time, it would quickly become one of the coolest projects we’ve ever collaborated on.
Dreaming of Forestias
ITEC Entertainment is a global industry leader in the world of themed entertainment. Founded in Orlando, Florida—the theme park capital of the world—their work includes theme parks, themed dining, resorts, cultural attractions and real estate development. Their storytelling results in incredible destinations across the globe, and we were thrilled to be brought on board for one of their most exciting projects yet. Many consultants joined the team including Charlan Brock Architecture and Foster + Partners.
ITEC was working for a Thailand-based developer with a unique dream that would be generations in the making. The client envisioned a multigenerational community, known as the Forestias, within Bangkok’s dense urban environment where people could live their entire lives immersed in nature and surrounded by family. Different residential components would accommodate an individual throughout the phases of life from young professional, to starting a family, and later, retirement. With a focus on sustainable living and the health and happiness of residents, the client dreamed of a living forest in the center that grounded the community and allowed families to coexist with nature every day.
The client’s dream quickly became our own, and while we were involved in the master planning throughout the 63.7-hectare property, we were most excited to help ITEC develop the design for the 4.8-hectare inner forest of this unique neighborhood. To create the look and feel of an old-growth forest from the start, we spent months researching Thailand’s natural ecosystems. The team created a very complex plant palette of natives and fast-growing species, using section renderings to illustrate canopy growth from day one to years five, ten and twenty. We also tackled complex design challenges, such as water storage and security, by utilizing the forest landscape.
The Story in the Details
The inner forest encompasses two realms: the Deep Forest at the very center and the Resident Forest, which blends with and borders the Deep Forest.
The Deep Forest, which is intended to be viewed and not traveled through, needed to be small and built up to create the illusion of a vast wilderness. Densely packed, it features a canopy mix of hardwoods, as well as a bamboo forest and palm forest, all connected by zones of transition. Plantings will be installed in multiple stages, with the first stage intended to create a mature “core” and subsequent plantings forming the mature forest within two years. The Deep Forest will take shape and form its character naturally over time, with minimal and selective pruning and maintenance.
In Thai folklore, the number nine is associated with luck and moving forward. It’s also the number of moments used to describe the journey of life—five major stages with four transitions between them. Within the Resident Forest, you’ll be able to travel a nine-sided path through the seasons of life.
Along this path, residents pass through the phases of life while looking inward to the Deep Forest to inspire and guide them. Arriving at infancy or leaving after old age, residents will walk through a misty bamboo forest, blurring their sense of coming or going and symbolizing the idea that life and death are often intertwined. As the path progresses, they’ll enter the flowering forest of their childhood, with elements designed to inspire discovery (like logs, vines and animal tracks) representing the question: “Is everything alive?” Continuing forward, steppingstones in the water illustrate how we learn to take risks in adolescence, and a denser canopy of giant Kapok trees and stone features coming up through the path embodies the milestones and obstacles throughout adulthood. As the canopy simplifies, a trickling waterfall and smooth boulders allow for time to sit and contemplate life, reflecting old age.
It’s not often we get the chance to imbue so much meaning into our designs. In fact, the designers who worked on the Forestias have taken inspiration from this process into their other projects, adding imagination and artful details that help connect people of all ages and abilities to their place on the planet and to each other.
