Flooding front and centre at architecture exposition

Flooding will be the main theme of the Architect '12 fair, featuring flood-escape housing design, a trend toward ceramic tile instead of wood, and redesigned mechanical and engineering systems.

Chalay Kunawong, vice-president of the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage (ASA), said flooding was the hot issue with the public, so Architect '12 would be about nothing but water.

"We have lived with water since long ago. We have to continue to live with it," he said.

There will be seven academic zones about water at the fair: Learning from Yesterdays, Architecture and Cities, Thailand's Settlement with Water, Our King and Water, Global Case Studies on Architecture with Water, Six Water Cities, and Visionary Water Architecture.

The Learning from Yesterdays exhibit will show how Thais lived with water and learned from it during the Dharavadee Age, the Sukothai Age, the Ayudhya Age and the Ratanakosin Age.

Architecture and Cities will show how city planning developed.

Thailand's Settlement with Water will show samples of people living with water such as the Koh Panyi community and those living in raft houses.

"We will select six provinces like Nan, Nakhon Ratchasima, Ayutthaya and Nakhon Sawan for architect firms to review and introduce flood protection solutions for future guidelines, not just basic ones," Dr Chalay said.

The fair will provide free of charge some 30-40 flood-protection housing designs with a usable area of smaller than 150 square metres.

Architect '12 will take place from April 24-29 at Impact Muang Thong Thani. Of the total exhibition area, 60,000 square metres, or 70%, is booked. Visitors will include architects, designers, engineers, contractors, developers, project owners and the general public.Visitors are expected to number 250,000. The ASA is aiming for 5 billion baht in sales for exhibitors at the fair.

Those exhibitors will include construction materials producers and suppliers such as Deco Room Co Ltd, a 33-year-old Thai-style furniture maker based in California that is shifting its focus to the Thai market.

Managing director Sopond Phairojmahakij said the company plans to spend 40-60 million baht to expand furniture production in Thailand after shifting its production base to Pathum Thani's Lam Luk Ka district seven years ago and the showroom to Srinakarin Road in Bangkok four years ago.