Kotchakorn Voraakhom Explained

Kotchakorn Voraakhom
Nationality:Thai
Awards:TED fellow

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

Voraakhom loved the flooding in Thailand as a child.[1] She studied at Chulalongkorn University.[2] 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.[3] [4] During graduate school she co-founded the Koungkuey Design Initiative (KDI), a nonprofit design organisation that helps communities develop their neighbourhoods.[5] She returned to Thailand in 2006.

Career

Kotchakorn has taught landscape design at Chulalongkorn University since 2010. She is founder and chief executive at Landprocess, a landscape architecture firm in Bangkok.[6] She has been named one of Thailand's best architects, one who is fostering social change. In 2015 Kotchakorn worked on the Thailand Pavilion at the Milan Expo.[7] The pavilion showcases the role of water in Thai agriculture. She was awarded a fellowship from The Asia Foundation in 2016.[8] She opened the Siam Green Sky roof garden in Siam Square in 2015.[9]

In 2017, she founded the Porous City Network. Bangkok, a city of over eight million people, is only 1.5 metres above sea level. 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.[10] [11] 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. She won a Chulalongkorn University design competition for a park that increases urban resilience by capturing runoff, the 28lk=inNaNlk=in Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park.[12] [13] [14] The park is built on a three degree incline[15] and contains artificial wetlands and underground cisterns that can hold one million gallons (3.8 million litres) of water.[16] Kotchakorn was inspired by King Bhumibol Adulyadej's concept of creating kaem ling, 'monkey cheeks', to capture rainwater runoff for later use.[17] In 2019, she opened a 91rai park at Thammasat University. In 2021, Landprocess-designed Chong Nonsi Canal Park opened.[18]

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.

Accolades

In 2018, Kotchakorn was named a TED fellow.[19] She has written for City Green.[20] She was part of the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp.[21] 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".[22] The following year she was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.[23] In 2020, The United Nations honored her as a winner of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Awards, Women for Results.[24]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: City park or flood defense? How about both.. 2018-11-13. CNN Style. 2018-11-23. en.
  2. News: Reading landscapes. Kongrut. Anchalee . 4 July 2015. Bangkok Post. 2018-11-23.
  3. News: How Architecture Is Tackling Increasing Floods From Climate Change. Yeoh. Neil. Forbes. 2018-11-23. en.
  4. Web site: Delegates — Yenching Social Innovation Forum. Yenching Social Innovation Forum. en-US. 2018-11-23. 24 November 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181124105632/https://www.ycasocialinnovation.org/delegates-17/. dead.
  5. Web site: What We Do. Koungkuey Design Initiative (KDI). 2019-11-15.
  6. News: Thammasat sprouts Asia's biggest rooftop farm . 12 December 2019 . Bangkok Post . Reuters . 10 December 2019.
  7. News: Milan Expo 2015: OBA Unveils Designs for Thai Pavilion. 2014-05-03. ArchDaily. 2018-11-23.
  8. News: Kotchakorn Voraakhom. The Asia Foundation. 2018-11-23.
  9. Web site: Thailand: Siam Green Sky has opened their largest Rooftop Garden. Asia Green Buildings. 2018-11-23.
  10. Web site: Our Fellows. The Equity Initiative. 2018-11-23.
  11. Web site: Kotchakorn Voraakhom. Echoing Green. 2018-11-23.
  12. News: Kongrut. Anchalee. Bangkok's secret weapon in war against floods. Bangkok Post. 21 October 2017. 15 November 2019.
  13. Web site: Bangkok has designed a park for the coming age of flooded cities. Prevention Web. 2018-11-23.
  14. News: As Bangkok sinks, could this anti-flood park be the answer?. Fullerton. Jamie. 2018-10-03. The Guardian. 2018-11-23. 0261-3077.
  15. News: Meet Thailand's secret weapon in climate change battle . 2 March 2020 . Bangkok Post . Agence France-Presse . 2 March 2020.
  16. Web site: CU Centenary Park . Chulalongkorn University. 2018-11-23.
  17. News: How this Bangkok park is helping to save the sinking city from flooding. 2018-09-06. Water Source. 2018-11-23.
  18. News: . A touch of Seoul in Chong Nonsi . Bangkok Post . 2022-08-06.
  19. News: Meet the 2018 class of TED Fellows and Senior Fellows. 2018-01-09. TED Blog. 2018-11-23.
  20. Web site: Nature for Urban Minds. www.nparks.gov.sg. 2018-11-23.
  21. Web site: GEB Bangkok Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. 2018-11-23.
  22. News: 3 Thais make 'Time' rising stars list . 15 November 2019 . Bangkok Post . 15 November 2019.
  23. News: 2020-11-23. BBC 100 Women 2020: Who is on the list this year?. en-GB. BBC News. 2020-11-23.
  24. Web site: Kotchakorn Voraakhom . 2022-03-13 . Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts — Washington University in St. Louis . en.