Gold Landscape Planning and Garden Design · 2024
Benjakitti Forest Park
- A' Design Award 2024 Gold Winner in Landscape Planning and Garden Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: The Treasury Department (Ministry of Finance)
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 76,543
- Verification code DEB2FA845E · Verify this award
About Benjakitti Forest Park
Benjakitti Park is located on the site of a disused tobacco factory in central Bangkok. The park's design incorporates wetland and forest ecosystems that deliver services including urban flood management, purification of polluted canal waters, and habitat for native plants and wildlife. The boardwalks and skywalks that crisscross the park are designed to immerse visitors in nature and to encourage them to reflect upon how humans and nature might live in harmony. The designers’ ambition is for the park to demonstrate the potential for nature-based approaches to urban sustainability.
Benjakitti Forest Park by Arsomsilp represents a remarkable achievement in contemporary landscape architecture, embodying the evolving discourse around urban ecological infrastructure and the integration of natural systems within dense metropolitan contexts. This aerial perspective reveals a design philosophy rooted in biomimetic principles, where constructed wetlands and sculpted vegetation masses work in concert to create both functional environmental services and spaces of profound aesthetic contemplation. The composition demonstrates masterful command of scale, orchestrating the relationship between intimate human-scaled pathways and the vast territorial gesture of the overall intervention. The designer appears to engage deeply with traditions of Asian garden philosophy, where water, vegetation, and carefully framed views create sequential spatial experiences that unfold through movement. The curvilinear boardwalk system suggests influence from both organic modernism and traditional landscape traditions, creating circulation patterns that encourage meandering discovery rather than linear efficiency. Technical accomplishment manifests in the sophisticated grading and water management visible in the wetland basin, where varying water depths and strategically placed vegetation islands create diverse ecological niches while maintaining visual coherence. The chromatic orchestration of the planting design demonstrates sensitive understanding of color theory in landscape application, with the rounded vegetation masses creating rhythmic green accents against the darker water surfaces. The amphitheater element introduces programmatic diversity, suggesting the park functions as both ecological sanctuary and civic gathering space. The temporal dimension captured in this golden-hour photograph emphasizes the experiential richness the design offers across different times of day, inviting viewers to consider how light transforms spatial perception. One might contemplate how this intervention negotiates the complex relationship between urban development and ecological restoration, proposing a model where constructed nature enhances rather than merely survives alongside metropolitan growth.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Benjakitti Park is a Bangkok urban park located in the former Tobacco factory area after the factory was relocated to the outskirts. The design concepts are, firstly, to improve public understanding and knowledge about sustainability, hydrology, and forest ecology in the urban setting. Secondly, to become an initiative of the ecological park development model. Lastly, to serve the urban communities and preserve the city’s ecosystem by creating a biodiverse sanctuary that brings back lives.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The design uses cut-and-fill earthwork techniques within the site to create landform character and reduce soil transportation costs. Regarding cost reduction, local materials like brick and exposed concrete are used and done by local masons. To achieve a low-impact goal, all existing road and drainage systems are kept. Additional elements like the skywalk and urban amphitheater are designed with a precast system which requires less construction area and period compared to conservative methods.
- Tags
- Urban Park, Urban Rejuvenation, Adaptive Reuse, Sustainable Design, Biodiversity, Ecological Restoration, Climate Resilience, Accessible Design, Stormwater Management, Biophilia
- Production Technology
- The crushed concrete from site demolition is used as island bases and water filtration layers instead of imported pebbles. Existing concrete paving blocks are reused as bicycle parking and seating area bases. The former tobacco factory buildings themselves are renovated into various facilities with sustainability in mind. Some parts of the roofs are replaced with translucent material to draw in natural light, and also parts of the solid walls are removed for better natural ventilation.
- Design Challenge
- A challenge for this project was introducing a new type of park that is designed to be nature-based instead of the existing activity-based parks in Bangkok in order to help locals understand how man and nature can live in harmony. Another challenge was solving the issues of floods, droughts, and polluted water. Also, we wanted to exhibit these issues as they were resolved to help visitors see the park’s role in urban ecosystems, which required evidence-based research and expert consultations.
- Project Duration
- The project was designed in December 2019, finished in August 2020, started construction in November 2020, and finished in August 2022 in Bangkok.
- Operation Flow
- The land that was once occupied by industrial usage was transformed into a park that welcomes people of all ages, genders, races, and physical capabilities. Various spaces are provided such as bicycle lanes, nature walks, healing gardens, lawns, pavilions, and an urban amphitheater, all of which allow people to immerse themselves in nature. Operation parts require less maintenance since the park was designed to be self-sustained, which is overseen by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
- Research
- Water purification is one of the project’s cores. The park helps with cleaning water from 70 mg per L BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) to 5 mg per L BOD, producing 1,600 cu m of clean water a day. Constructed wetland is applied, along the 2-km-long water channel with a 1 per 1000 slope ratio, due to the evidence-based information that certain kinds of plants can absorb pollutants from water. Besides, there is a waterfall for the aeration process and an oxidation pond for the oxidation process.
- Inspiration
- With Thailand’s monsoon climate, floods and droughts are significant issues. The design comes up with a sponge concept that retains rainwater in the rainy season and discharges water in the dry season. The urban-sewage-polluted water from the adjacent canal is purified by native aquatic plants. The site is flat with a 0.5-meter-above-MSL elevation average and a high groundwater level case. Thai agricultural wisdom, furrow irrigation, is used to elevate tree roots, avoid floods, and drain water.
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer Royal Thai Army - 1st Development Division, 2022.
Image #2: Photographer Royal Thai Army - 1st Development Division, 2022.
Image #3: Photographer Royal Thai Army - 1st Development Division, 2022.
Image #4: Photographer Sarakadee Magazine, 2022.
Image #5: Photographer Mr.Srirath Somsawat, 2022.
Colors of Benjakitti Forest Park
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Sustainable Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design
We transform urban spaces through nature-based design solutions that address climate resilience, biodiversity, and community needs. Our multidisciplinary team specializes in large-scale landscape projects, ecological restoration, and sustainable urban development, creating environments where humans…
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