Today Bangkok is covered with hard surfaces, office skyscrapers, and tall condominiums. Increasing development slowly devours nature. Green space, an indicator of human well-being, becomes insufficient and inapproachable. Bangkok now is dry and dull, with no greenery to heal people’s mind and body, or cool down the city.
With limited space of the city, how can we create green spaces? The answer is: we don’t have to make them big. They can be ‘pocket park’, a small green space within neighborhood that people can drop by and take their time. Then what is the quickest way to turn Bangkok’s barren areas into lush green spaces?
Hop Park is the project that instantly create a green space that requires low maintenance and make the least change to the original structure. The space can easily ‘hop’ and adapt to different areas while tackles occurring problems of the city.
Shma, in collaboration with Garnier, the leading skincare brand of natural beauty industry, and Bangkok Metropolitan, creates a 550 square meters park on the busy Patumwan skywalk which is known by the name of ‘Lotus Leaves Square.’ The project aims to show how green space can be a part of our daily life. This space potentially slows down pace of life at this public transportation hub, provides meeting points, reduces pollution, and creates nice environment for those passerby. This space is a prototype that can be adapted to other areas later on.
Hop Park landscape design is divided into 5 zones. With around 20,000 trees, each zone is designed to make the most of the green space and fully enhance user’s experience.
1. Green Air Zone: Plants that Provide the City with Fresh Clean Air
Bangkok is buried under dust and smoke. Several studies show green space can help filter out pollution and purify the air. Over a year, a tree can produce enough oxygen for two people, absorb 9-15 kilograms of carbon dioxide, and capture 1.4 kilograms of dust and pollutants.
2. Blue-Green Oasis Zone: Plants that Purify Water and Reduce Water Pollution
Plants, as well as green space, don’t only grows on land. Blue space is also a crucial part of the ecosystem. Water plants can help remove bacteria, filter water, and reduce water pollution.
3. Edible Haven Zone: Edible Plants that Promote Food Security
Food and produce are getting more and more costly. In the era of ‘global boiling’, food security becomes a concern of many cities around the world. Edible green space tackles this problem by providing people with healthy and sufficient food. The space gives city dwellers food source while encourages them to grow their own city garden. Various edible plant species are selected for this zone to show that they can survive and thrive even in urban area.
4. Ecological Diversity Zone: Enhancing the Ecosystem by Providing Living Creatures with Food Sources and Habitats
Human being is not the only living creature, there are also animals and insects that play important roles in maintaining the ecosystem. Unfortunately, the planet earth is changing, resulting in disappearance of their natural food sources and habitats. Plants in this zone provide animals with food, insects with sweet juicy nectar and all of these small creatures with homes.
5. Wellness Retreat Zone: Green Space that Heals Mind and Body
Life in a big city forces people to always be in rush of getting to destination that they usually forget to notice the beauty around them. This zone invites people to sit down among greenery, take a break, and slow down. They can enjoy fragrance flowers that help them relaxed and recovered after a long day.
When the night falls, Hop Park lighting shines through, brightening the whole area and providing safety for passerby. ‘Projection mapping’ also adds more fun and color to the zone, making it a perfect leisure space for Bangkokian.
Hop Park : Instantly Green Everywhere is a pilot project that shows how a dull and dry space can be turned into a lush green space, giving benefits to people of the city in so many aspects. Hop Park can hop around to other areas and instantly turn more gray spaces into more lush green spaces.