Bangkok, Thailand

Chulalongkorn University Visiting Professor Jenchieh Hung, from the award-winning Thai architectural practice Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee / HAS design and research, led a graduate design studio in the Master of Architecture in Architectural Design (i+mARCH) at the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University.

Through an exploration of Bangkok’s evolving urban identity, Professor Hung shared his research-driven design methodology, contributing his extensive expertise in architecture, design, and research to both the university and its students.

Professor Jenchieh Hung continues to bridge architectural practice and academia through his role as Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University.

Working alongside Assistant Professor Chomchon Fusinpaiboon, he led the graduate design studio in the International Program in Architecture (i+mARCH), where students explored the evolving identity of Bangkok through research-driven architectural design.

Drawing upon the research methodology developed through his internationally acclaimed practice, Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee / HAS design and research, founded together with Professor Kulthida Songkittipakdee, Jenchieh Hung introduced students to a design process centered on the study of patterns.

The studio investigates pattern formation as a generative design tool capable of interpreting both urban and natural systems, revealing the underlying relationships that shape cities, architecture, and everyday life.

Since 2020, Professors Jenchieh Hung and Kulthida Songkittipakdee have played an active role in architectural education at Chulalongkorn University, serving as Visiting Professors across the Department of Architecture, the Department of Interior Architecture, and the International Program in Design and Architecture, under the leadership of Dean Sarayut Supsook.

Their teaching extends the research agenda of the Hung And Songkittipakdee Laboratory (HAS Lab), where architectural education becomes a platform for investigating contemporary urban conditions through interdisciplinary research and experimental design.

The latest result of the HAS Lab studio focused on Bangkok’s historic Chinatown district under the theme “AM/PM at Yaowarat: Identity in Drifting and Becoming Bangkok.”

Rather than approaching Yaowarat as a static historic district, students examined it as a living urban ecosystem continuously shaped by cultural exchange, commerce, migration, and everyday life.

Each student identified fundamental urban elements that contribute to Yaowarat’s unique identity—including streets, vendors, signage, food culture, and the ubiquitous urban canopy.

Through extensive field research, mapping, observation, and analytical drawing, these everyday components were investigated not as isolated objects but as interconnected urban patterns that collectively construct the character of Bangkok.

The design studio culminated in a collective architectural proposal titled Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory, located at the historic 22 July Roundabout in Yaowarat, Bangkok, Thailand.

The project reimagines the site as a public observatory where architecture records, interprets, and celebrates the continually evolving identity of Bangkok’s Chinatown while creating new opportunities for public engagement and urban memory.

The studio explored the broader question of how Bangkok’s identity can be sustained while remaining open to transformation.

Students analyzed both singular and overlapping urban events, translating their research into narrative diagrams that revealed the relationships between spatial patterns, social activities, and temporal change.

Their investigations examined the dynamic balance between permanence and adaptability, demonstrating how the city’s identity emerges through the continuous interaction of architecture, infrastructure, commerce, and everyday life.

Rather than treating architecture as an isolated object, the final projects proposed architecture as part of a larger system of interconnected urban relationships. Prototype models synthesized the research findings into spatial propositions, illustrating how pattern-based thinking can become both a research methodology and a design strategy.

Guided by the framework “AM/PM at Yaowarat: Identity in Drifting and Becoming Bangkok,” the studio presents a new approach to understanding the city—one that views Bangkok not as a fixed composition, but as a continuously evolving network of patterns shaped by time, culture, and human activity.

Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory – [AM/PM Street] as an Identity in Drifting and Becoming Bangkok, by Nora Bull Langehaug, led by Chulalongkorn University visiting professor Jenchieh Hung.

This project explores Bangkok’s Yaowarat Street, known as Chinatown, one of the city’s most dynamic areas, celebrated for its diversity of uses.

Unlike traditional urban streets, Chinatown’s streets are constantly transformed through appropriation, infiltration, and blending, as people turn public streets into private or semi-public spaces, generating a unique and transformative shift in their meaning.

The design reimagines the street as a “street park.” At the Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory, the spatial relationship of Yaowarat Street is transformed from a horizontal to a vertical dimension.

The space accommodates a variety of activities while encouraging a reconsideration of the role of open space. Incorporating greenery, the project fosters a welcoming, pedestrian-friendly environment that blends urban life with public leisure.

Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory – [AM/PM Vendor] as an Identity in Drifting and Becoming Bangkok, by Ni Kadek Adini, led by Chulalongkorn University visiting professor Jenchieh Hung.

Street vendors are an essential part of Bangkok’s Yaowarat Chinatown, creating vibrancy and continuous activity through everyday buying and selling. Their distribution is shaped by the linear structure of Yaowarat Road and its dense network of alleys.

Some vendors occupy permanent locations integrated into shophouses, while others appear temporarily, arriving by car, bicycle, or pushcart. Vendors vary widely in their opening systems, roofing types, materials, functions, and operational methods, offering rich potential for architectural interpretation.

The Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory draws inspiration from the contrast between daytime and nighttime street-vendor activities. During the day, the area remains relatively calm; after sunset, Yaowarat Road fills with visitors and expanded dining setups.

Visitor movement—shaped by time, spatial conditions, and vendor placement—informs the design of a multifunctional observatory comprising street-vendor spaces, markets, food exhibition areas, and an observation deck.

Respecting the historical significance of the 22 July Roundabout in the Yaowarat area, an existing fountain is preserved as a key interior focal point, creating layered spatial transitions that reflect Chinatown’s dynamic and evolving character.

Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory – [AM/PM Signage] as an Identity in Drifting and Becoming Bangkok, by Junyi Chen, led by Chulalongkorn University visiting professor Jenchieh Hung.

This project explores Bangkok’s Yaowarat Chinatown through its most striking feature: oversized signage, which forms the district’s defining visual identity.

Four key characteristics of Chinatown’s signage are identified: parasitic—attached to buildings yet visually dominant; extensible—projecting freely into the street; directive—guiding sightlines and pedestrian movement; and clustered—individual signs merging into a collective urban expression.

The design of the Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory begins by treating each sign as a spatial unit. Behind every hanging sign is an independently replaceable functional module, such as a shop, exhibition space, or public facility.

The direction of the signs’ extensions is translated into internal pathways, walkways, and visual guides, while dense layers of signage form the building’s skin, façade, and roof, integrating lighting, shading, and wayfinding functions.

A Signage Growth System allows the architecture to adapt and expand over time. More than a building, the project invites visitors to step inside the signs themselves, creating a dynamic, living environment that reflects Chinatown’s hybrid cultural vitality.

Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory – [AM/PM Food] as an Identity in Drifting and Becoming Bangkok, by Lwin Myat Swe, led by Chulalongkorn University visiting professor Jenchieh Hung.

The project investigates Bangkok’s Yaowarat Chinatown through its identity as a food paradise, where culinary heritage, urban intensity, and public space intersect. Along Yaowarat Street, the site reveals a striking contrast between long-standing food traditions and the pressures of modern development.

The design explores how food-related public spaces—such as street-food corridors, market lanes, and informal dining zones—shape the neighborhood’s character while preserving its cultural depth.

Guided by the concept of “drifting and becoming,” the Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory maps daily culinary flows, including vendor setups, cooking activities, pedestrian circulation, and peak dining hours.

This analysis informs design interventions that protect Chinatown’s atmosphere while creating new opportunities for residents and visitors to engage with its culinary environment.

Memorial zones reflect the history of food culture, while experiential areas support contemporary urban life with tasting spaces, gathering spots, and interactive installations.

Shaded pathways, green pockets, and sustainable strategies address environmental and social challenges, making the observatory both a cultural anchor and a resilient urban model.

Bangkok Chinatown Memorial Observatory – [AM/PM Canopy] as an Identity in Drifting and Becoming Bangkok, by Yulin Duan, led by Chulalongkorn University visiting professor Jenchieh Hung. In Bangkok’s Yaowarat Chinatown, the canopy and arcade are not only distinctive spatial forms but also the most vibrant areas of daily life.

They provide shelter from sun and rain while connecting vendors, shops, and neighbors through social interactions. This gray space is neither fully indoors nor completely open; it serves as a vital carrier of local culture and community memory.

The design proposes a new prototype for a vertical community: a floating extension canopy tower. Using a core tube for vertical circulation and structural support, the building extends outward into staggered platforms covered by continuous canopies.

These Sky Arcade levels accommodate night markets, community plazas, street food, and pocket parks, transforming the tower into a vertically extending street. Connected by bridges, staircases, and corridors, the tower offers a three-dimensional, meandering experience.

The canopy becomes a cultural and spatial language, linking multi-level street life while reflecting the vibrancy of Chinatown both day and night. This design preserves the social and cultural atmosphere, elevating familiar urban life into the sky and creating a living, vertical community.

Professor Jenchieh Hung and Professor Kulthida Songkittipakdee are the Principal Architects and Co-Founders of Jenchieh Hung + Kulthida Songkittipakdee / HAS design and research, an internationally acclaimed architectural practice based in Bangkok.

Their work explores the relationship between architecture, urbanism, nature, and material innovation through research-driven design methodologies.

In addition to professional practice, they have served as Jurors for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) – RIBA International Awards and hold academic appointments as Honorary Professors, Distinguished Professors, Visiting Professors, Adjunct Professors, and Design Critics in Architecture at Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering, Huaqiao University, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Tongji University, Chulalongkorn University, Chung Hua University, Donghua University, and World University of Design.

Professor Jenchieh Hung also serves as Exhibition Chairman and Principal Curator of the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage, while Professor Kulthida Songkittipakdee serves as Vice President of the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage.

Their projects and research have received international recognition through exhibitions, publications, and prestigious architectural awards, reflecting their ongoing commitment to advancing contemporary architecture through practice, research, and education.