Bangkok on Wheels

3 BANGKOK ON WHEELS Legitimizing Informal Mobility through a Ramp Metropolis Harvard GSD STU 1315 Shophouse Metropolis | Spring 2026 Instructor: Chatpong Chuenrudeemol

Bangkok Bastard Vehicles Catalogue GSD Spring 2026_STU 1 3 1 5 Shophouse Metropolis Bangkok Local Bastard Study Betty Chen 4 Bangkok Bastard Vehicle Catalogue The project begins with the observation that Bangkok operates through mobile and modifi ed vehicles. These vehicles appear at many scales, and degrees of “bastardness” (the extent to which a mass-produced vehicle has been modifi ed into something more specifi c and architectural), creating obstructions to the city. The project asks how architecture can legitimize them through spatial support: a shophouse-based ramp metropolis that combines transportation, vending, repair, markets, and housing. Motorcycle taxi in Bangkok is an important urban infrastructure, but it is spatially unsupported. Its convenience also creates conflict. The station is made of many informal components that occupy the sidewalk and obstruct pedestrian traffi c; parked motorcycles along the curb also interfere with car traffi c, Bastard Vehicle Catalogue Photographs of Bangkok Bastard Vehicles especially near intersections. And for the drivers, they usually had to wait or rest outdoor exposed to heat and sun with very minimal shading or amenities Street food vendors and other small-scale mobile vehicles are also crucial for Bangkok street life. Almost anything with wheels can become a kitchen, a shopfront, a storage system, a roof, a counter, or a display surface. They becomes more than vehicles, but moving components of everyday life. Although they have very high mobility, they still need parking, storage, cleaning, repair, and return. Photographs of Motorcycle Taxi in Bangkok

5 Bangkok Bastard Vehicle Catalogue The vendor research zooms into two specifi c livelihoods: a fresh market motorcycle vendor and Auntie Nah, a fried banana vendor. The fresh food vendor’s cart begins as a factory-made vehicle, then becomes self-modifi ed with baskets, rods, hooks, canopy structures, and welded motorcycle connections, allowing it to operate as transport, display, storage, and workspace at once. Auntie Nah’s fried banana cart is simi- larly transformed into a compact cooking infrastructure, carrying a gas tank, frying equipment, supplies, small furniture, and protective elements for daily vending. Together, these two cases show that the vehicle is tied to an entire domestic and logistical routine: sourcing ingredients, preparing food, cooking, parking, cleaning, repairing, storing equipment, returning home, and sometimes caregiving. Their biggest spatial pressures often happen before and after the act of selling, which is why the project treats the vendor vehicle as the starting point for housing design. The home becomes a place where the cart can return, plug in, unload, be washed, repaired, and prepared for the next day. Fresh Market Motorcycle Vendor Fried Banana Vendor: Auntie Nah

6 Learning from Hexiajie Photographs of Hexiajie Residential-Market Complex Hexiajie neighborhood is a Residential-Market Complex in Fuzhou, China. A southern tropical city with rich street life and many forms of informalities. The ground level is a covered fresh market, connected to the residential units on top through a back- of-house crossover ramp. Here, circulation becomes architecture. The ramp carries pedestrians, bikes, e-motorcycles, carts, cars, and loading trucks. Going along the ramp, one experiences three atmospheric layers: the market at the bottom that is dense, chaotic, full of color, smell, texture, and movement; the mezzanine layer in the middle that is a dark, dead zone; and the residential layer above that is bright, calm, and lifted away from the chaos below. Hexiajie shows how FOH and BOH can become a sectional gradient. And I was inspired by the idea that the ramp could connect diff erent scales in a seamless manner, bridging private and public. Frontal Axonometric of Hexiajie

Corrugated metal canopy Galvanized steel “bastard” frame Upper level ramp system for housing & communal program Lower level ramp for transit hub, market, service, and ground circulation Main Transit Corridor Transit Hub Hawker Center - food market, theatre, open space Housing Concrete frame of existing shop- house cut into smaller modules for open space, accessibility, ventila- tion, and view 7 Urban System Design Ground Plan The site is away from Bangkok city center, where old urban fabric is replaced by modern traffi c-oriented urban fabric. It is near a BTS rail station and along a major road intersection where the south end of Sukhumvit 71 meets Sukhumvit Rd. It already has heavy motorcycle traffi c, pedestrian move- ment, and congestion. Yet access to the site is narrow and blocked by dense structures. The corner condition is important because it is already a place of transfer. Instead of letting vehicles compete on the street edge, I pull these movements into the block. The system is inserted into the existing structural frame of shophouses. There are 2 layers of ramp systems: the ground layer is public, designed for cars and pickup trucks, motorcycle taxi, and visiting vehicles to the food market; the top layer is designed for residents and vendors, bringing vehicles to the more private programs. A layer of light steel “bastard” structure like the ones seen in vendor carts modifi cation, is added to house the ramps. On the very top is a large roofscape hovering over shophouse blocks, programmatically dividing the large site while creating a sense of unity. SUKHUMVIT RD SUKHUMVIT 71 RD SITE PHRA KHANONG STATION

8 The existing shophouse block is treated as a dense fabric that can be cut and reconnected. These cuts cre- ate a less dense block, providing through-air, light, open space, public access, and new thresholds into the block. Ramps wrap around the buildings and connect the existing shophouse fabric to new programs. The program is organized from the most public edge to the more private interior. At the open corner where Sukhumvit 71 intersects Sukhumvit Rd is motorcycle taxi pickup station, rest lounge for taxi drivers, private- ly-owned motorcycle parking, and vehicle support programs; along the two main streets are commercial and civic programs, under which is public parking; away from the corner along Sukhumvit Rd are hotels, short-term low-cost housing, and amenities; deeper inside the complex is long-term vendor housing connected by ramps, wrapping the back of the site; at the center is the hidden gem: a hawker amphitheater which functions both as a food market and a gathering space. Render Views of Transit Hub Urban System Design Site Model 1:500

9 Traffi c enters the site through two controlled thresholds which register on the roofscape. The project orga- nizes multiple circulation systems including motorcycle taxi, private motorcycle, vendor carts, cars, trucks, and pedestrians. They separate where confl ict needs to be controlled and merge where exchange happens. The goal is to legitimize informal mobility through architectural control, shade, access, and support. Render Views of Hawker Theater Physical Model of Hawker Theater 1:100

10 Vendor Housing Design The vendor housing units are designed around the needs of the two vendors. Typical housing module is 4 bays x 4 bays with each bay being 3.5m x 3.5m, with the center bays removed to house circulation, as well as to function as a light well and to provide stack ventilation. Each unit allows the cart or motorcycle-at- tached vehicle to plug directly into the home. For the fresh food vendor, motorcycle parking is next to the bathroom and service area this supports cleaning, washing, and repair. For Auntie Nah, cart parking is next to the kitchen food preparation connects directly to the vehicle, while private family space remains more protected. The vehicle porch becomes: garage, balcony, service yard, loading zone, domestic threshold. Ramps bring vehicles up to the housing units. This creates a relationship between access and privacy. The ramp takes up an empty shophouse bay and is off set from the housing facade, so that units have some pri- vacy. The open space in-between the ramp and the facade allows vertical ventilation and bastard uses such as a place for your plants or to hang your clothes. Not only is the ground fl oor accessible on wheels, the top fl oor also has parking pods connecting to the ramp. For vendors, the ramp is front-of-house because it brings the vehicle directly to the unit. For non-vendors, the same ramp can operate as back-of-house service circulation. Render Views of Vendor Housing

11 Physical Model of Vendor Housing Unit 1:50 Physical Model of Vendor Housing Unit 1:50

12 Physical Model of Vendor Housing Unit 1:50