Baan Trok Tua Ngok is a 90-years-old shophouse located in Bangkok’s gentrified Chinatown, which had been transformed from a house, factory, office, and eventually a vacant building with only the top floor being used for the family’s gathering space once a year. Instead of reinforcing the building with new steel structure and modernizing it with new appearance, Stu/D/O Architects designs to capture the owner’s memories and retain the building’s original spirit with the reuse of original materials and existing elements. The old is being kept old, while the new is made with new and recycled material, without imitating the old.
As neighboring houses of the era are left in ruins, waiting to be torn down and made into hostels or cafes, our main objective is to conserve the slowly disappearing local architecture in the Chinatown area and reconfigure the shophouse's history. The clients' only brief is the function, which is to retain the top floor for the family's ritual and renovate the rest for cultural and commercial purposes. The opening up for public use will support the maintenance fee of the building and allow it to be self-sustaining.
Because of the perception and circulation limitation of the existing vertical connection of a rowhouse, the existing narrow service passageway between the row house and the service quarter is now turned into the focal court, in order to suit the cultural uses. The reflective wall is added to brighten up and extend the narrow space while the solid walls that were used to define spaces as interior and exterior are replaced with panes of glass to redirect the perception inward and reconnect the two buildings together. Consequently, the overall quality of natural light and ventilation had been improved, as well as noise and pollution since the building no longer turned outwards towards the road.
In order to accommodate the new public function and its users, a structural alteration is needed since the building already maximized the structural load on its foundation. The ground floor of the building was removed to reduce the weight on the existing structure then built back to be supported by the new structure, structurally independent from the existing. Most of the elements have been kept and original material reused. For example, the reuse of the wood planks from the original stair on the void closure.
Even though there had been attempts in renovation projects of heritage buildings to remain original by keeping the facades or elements, in many cases the feeling of the projects has changed tremendously, almost like the building had been given a new soul rather than a new lease of life. For Baan Trok Tua Ngork, the owners have a strong bond with the building because of the family’s long history with it and, most importantly, it is still being used as a family gathering spot during important rituals every year. Therefore, Stu/D/O and the owners strive to retain its memory and spirit in this renovation process.
The method of bracing all the original timber structures with steel, for additional load of public use, was abandoned as it will change the details and feeling of the original shophouse. Instead, the structural strategy was to separate the existing and the new structure to be able to subside independently. This will allow the building to last longer in the future through the different expansion and connection joints designed for different structural conditions.
The ideology towards the design was to enhance the notion of preservation by understanding that the old is old and the new is new, mimicking the old would not suffice. Thus, each element was treated in a different way according to their condition. Some are kept as it is, such as the patterned floor tiles that only went through the cleaning process. Some got reconfigured for the new essence, such as the windows that are being removed from the opaque wall and reinserted back into the glass panes. And some new materials were introduced to reciprocate with the existing elements, such as the clay floor tiles that are replaced by the new ones with grooved patterns.
Through the idea of renovating to retain the building’s spirit, characteristics are kept through architectural elements and materials. Most of the elements are kept as is, such as the main stairs or 80 percent of the floor tiles, while some are being altered to suit the change in program, such as the existing doors which are being reinserted into glass panes instead of solid walls. The amount of elements reuse helps reduce the project’s carbon footprint significantly.
In order to limit the effect on the neighbors and the environment, the project is designed with contextual and cultural awareness. During the construction, only small machines are used to reduce noise and pollution. The front of the building is left almost untouched to preserve the neighborhood atmosphere, while the inside is designed to be able to adapt for future uses through flexibility of spaces, M&E systems, and structural joints. which would extend the building’s lifetime and reduce structural problems in the future.
The project is also beneficial to the people and community around the Tua Ngork alley in Chinatown, as well as the domestic whole. Not only this building revitalizes the street and the buildings around it, but these public uses help create jobs for the locals and the Sati Foundation, which supports the underserved children, and bring exposure for domestic entrepreneurs such as fashion design, pottery studios, food shops, art shops, wellness workshops and homeware stores owners. Because of the events that are being held occasionally by big brand tenants, smaller businesses could be supported with free space without affecting the maintenance budget of the building.
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