<p><img alt="Colonial building in Yangon. Sai Shang Kham/Shutterstock" src="/documents/10204/0/urban+heritage+lead.jpg/44b2220e-bbff-45e6-9fe2-d63465b86261?t=1505883808823" style="width: 997px; height: 598px;" />In the centre of Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda stands as a gleaming symbol of Myanmar’s ancient heritage. So important is this holy structure that local building legislations ensure no high rises can be constructed within its environs for fear that its luminescent presence will be obstructed.</p> <p>But in recent months, an equally eye-catching, if more prosaic, element has been noticeable in the thoroughfares that pass the historic stupa. Dozens of banana-hued new buses are lined up waiting to play their part in a badly-needed public transport upgrade: a sign of modernity set against Shwedagon’s stately gilt. &nbsp;</p> <p>While interest in the conservation of built heritage is growing in Southeast Asia, few of the region’s main urban centres can claim to have achieved a wholly successful balance between the often-clashing demands of moulding a modern city while integrating architectural traditions.</p> <p>And in no city in the region is this push and pull more delicately poised than in Yangon. Often cited as one of the last bastions of “Old Asia”, the city is known for its rambunctious markets, ornate temples and grand colonial architecture. As the biggest city in Myanmar and its commercial hub, however, it is also ripe for development, while its creaking infrastructure is in dire need of modernisation.</p> &nbsp; <div class="pull-quotes-container">Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears. But what marks the development of modern cities is sanitation and transport</div> &nbsp; <p>The question is how successfully the city can be shaped in the face of so many competing factors, and how planners can take on-board lessons from other regional hubs.</p> <p>“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears,” says Luca Bonifacio an architect and visiting professor at Yangon Technical University, quoting the Italian journalist and author Italo Colvino. “But what marks the development of modern cities is sanitation and transport.”</p> <p>Nobody could argue that Yangon doesn’t have a long way to go on both these fronts. Private car traffic has gone from virtually non-existent to Jakarta-worthy jams in just a few years. Meanwhile, inadequate drainage creates widespread, filth-ridden flooding during the monsoon months.</p> <p>All the while countless historic buildings have succumbed to the wreckers’ ball as often hastily built modern condos devour the city’s built-heritage.</p> <p>“There’s a war in the city,” adds Bonficaio referring to the influx of new real estate projects. “Parts of the city are changing in a matter of weeks.”</p> <p>Yet despite these challenges, much of Yangon’s built heritage remains intact and is seen by many as an attribute that could be successfully integrated into the modern city – given the right kind of planning.</p> <p>“This is a crucial moment,” says Bonifacio. “Now is the right time to sit down and discuss what we want from the city.”</p> &nbsp; <p><a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/this-exile-returned-to-myanmar-a-multimillionai-3" target="_blank"><strong>More:&nbsp;This exile returned to Myanmar and became a multimillionaire</strong></a></p> &nbsp; <p>The new National League for Democracy-led Yangon regional government, has been keen to prove itself a better manager of the city than its military predecessors. Moves to halt rapid unlicensed construction have been introduced and, while plans to upgrade public transport have not been without starting glitches due to an initial shortage of buses, intent is positive.</p> <p>However, evidence of earlier lack of planning and foresight is all too easy to see. &nbsp;Pansodan Street in the city’s downtown is home to admired heritage buildings including the impressive Italianate Lokanat Gallery building.&nbsp; But lurking nearby is the concrete monstrosity of the Shwe Bank building: an ugly reminder of what money can buy under a corrupt regime.</p> <p>If such buildings serve one useful cultural purpose it is that many in Yangon are strongly aware of the benefits of preserving built heritage for social reasons – and not simply as a nostalgic nod to the architectural grandeur of colonial days.</p> &nbsp; <p><img alt="Yangon's historic Strand Hotel has just undergone a major refurbishment. Time will tell if the city itself will balance old and new as successfully" src="/documents/10204/0/urban+heritage+3.jpg/813fd942-5207-4c5e-83ce-7f0f483e4987?t=1505734473589" style="width: 740px; height: 493px;" /></p> &nbsp; <p>The independent conservation group Yangon Heritage Trust’s ambitious master plan for the city takes cues and heeds lessons from the examples of other historic hubs in Asia.</p> <p>The plans quote former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew who once noted: “We made our share of mistakes in our rush to rebuild Singapore. We realised we were destroying a valuable part of our cultural heritage.”</p> <p>The YHT offers a vision which demands strong government leadership now to tackle urgent modernisation challenges, as well as long term plans to develop an efficient public transport system, affordable housing, green spaces, development of underused government land and new uses for heritage buildings. Adequate health care, employment education facilities are part of the overall vision for a working modern city it notes: a plan for a city must be about more than just buildings.</p> <p>“Yangon doesn’t have to be a concrete museum frozen in time nor a soulless jungle of concrete and steel: there is a middle path that can transform it into a prosperous, regionally competitive and creative metropolis. Yangon’s residents can enjoy all the advantages of modern infrastructure while retaining the social and economic benefits of their unique and irreplaceable heritage,” the plan’s authors state.</p> <p>It is a glorious vision, but how realistic is it for Yangon -- or any other ASEAN city -- to achieve such ambitions?</p> <p>Dan Levin, director of South East Asia for BH architects, recently hosted a seminar in Yangon in which developers, government figures, heritage representatives and others met to discuss such goals.</p> <p>He believes the first challenge is funding, adding that public and private sector had to come up with solid business models, while government needs to introduce clear policies to encourage investment, as well as on land use, and heritage preservation. Levin added that planners should avoid new build, particularly high density, and essential new infrastructure in historic districts wherever possible.</p> <p>Yangon’s Central Business District should be allowed to move elsewhere – potentially to the other side of the Yangon River -- &nbsp;to relieve pressure off the historic core, he suggested, citing Vietnam as an example.</p> <p>“Ho Chi Minh City is building a new CBD across the Saigon River and developing new public transit systems - water bus and train,” he says.</p> &nbsp; <p><a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/meet-the-man-who-is-reviving-yangon-s-crumbling-colonial-buildings" target="_blank"><strong>More:&nbsp;Reviving Yangon's crumbling colonial buildings</strong></a></p> &nbsp; <p>Indeed, shining examples of how to integrate heritage into the modern cityscape are counterbalanced by cautionary tales throughout Southeast Asia.</p> <p>In Ho Chi Minh City, the implementation of major new infrastructure such as the city’s new metro system and an ongoing construction boom indicative of one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies is counterbalanced by what many see as careless destruction of historic architecture.</p> <p>Developers have scooped up swathes of land in the city’s central District One, with privately owned colonial villas and apartments and historic municipal buildings replaced by sprawling construction zones. There is no comprehensive survey of how many buildings have been demolished, but few are unaware of the aesthetic transformation that is underway.</p> <p>“It’s like losing the chicken that lays the golden egg,” local architect Ngo Viet Nam Son noted in a recent AFP report, referring to the fading of the city’s legendary period charm.</p> <p>This tug of war between heritage preservation and the development demands of the modern city is one that Singapore experienced earlier than other centres in the region.</p> &nbsp; <p><img alt="Older parts of Bangkok are getting a fresh injection of energy as hip businesses move into long-established shophouse communities" src="/documents/10204/0/urban+heritage+2.jpg/1e44a2b8-f689-4efa-8352-5424315bbc1e?t=1505734277000" style="width: 740px; height: 480px;" /></p> &nbsp; <p>In the 1960s and 1970s, the city was faced with the problems of acute housing shortage, a rapidly expanding population and overcrowded slums, as well as the pressing need for rapid economic development. As such, urban renewal took precedence over heritage conservation to provide more housing and transform Singapore into a modern and efficient business centre.</p> <p>It was only later, faced with falling tourist arrivals, that the Singapore government recommended, among other things, to conserve Chinatown and other historic districts to woo visitors back.</p> <p>“Conservation is testament to our rich architectural, historical and cultural heritage,” reads the mission statement on the homepage of Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. “Conserving these buildings also adds to the distinctive character and identity of our city.”</p> <p>Another regional city with a strong heritage component is Bangkok. Although gleaming skyscrapers characterise the main commercial core of Thailand’s capital, conservation groups are trying to ensure that the city’s older districts and its riverside area develop in a less dramatic, more organic fashion.</p> &nbsp; <p><a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/golden-opportunities-lurk-in-myanmar-s-static-property-sector" target="_blank"><strong>More:&nbsp;Is Myanmar's gold rush over?</strong></a></p> &nbsp; <p>Bangkok River Partners, a multi-partner organisation, aims to promote the integrity of the city’s historic and riverside districts by making them a hub for creative industries and restaurants, while ensuring that centuries-old communities retain their heart and heritage as the area is transformed into one of the city’s greatest assets.</p> <p>Numerous art galleries have sprouted in the area in recent times, as well as some of Bangkok’s hottest bars and restaurants – many of which are housed in traditional shophouse buildings. Also symbolic of the area’s flowering as a magnet for creative types are places such as Jam Factory, a multi-discipline space founded by famed architect Duangrit Bunnag, and the new Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC), which now occupies the 80-year old Grand Postal Building.</p> &nbsp; <div class="pull-quotes-container">Building new demonstrates a city’s wealth and progress. Also, it’s often cheaper than restoring and repurposing an old structure</div> &nbsp; <p>Experts say this example could be emulated in Yangon, which has a major river front area that is currently used as docks and mainly cut off from the public, but earmarked as a creative public space under YHT’s proposals.</p> <p>“Building new demonstrates a city’s wealth and progress,” says David Robinson, director of Bangkok River Partners. “Also, it’s often cheaper to pull down and build new than restore and repurpose an old structure. “Where we can offer inspiration to others is projects which demonstrate the real value of old buildings to small business, low cost residential and tourism.”</p> <p>Back in Yangon, the evening crowds filter into the bar at the Strand Hotel. The legendary pile recently underwent a major renovation, and the fresh look is a contemporary – and perhaps glitzier – twist on the original style implemented by the Sarkies brothers when they opened it in 1901. A stone’s throw from the hotel, weather-worn cargo ships ply the Yangon River, many laden with construction materials for the condominiums and towers about to alter the skyline. The contrast between new and old might be stark, but the challenge for those tasked with outlining the future of the city is ensuring that they are – at least – reconcilable.</p> &nbsp; <p><em>This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/" target="_blank">Issue No. 143 of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine</a></em></p>

<div><img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/POK+KOBKONGSANTI.jpg/2d865479-e5d4-43dd-823a-c7ba73fa48f7?t=1505214516355" style="width: 740px; height: 492px;" />“A lot of designers now are concerned about sustainability, but don’t give value to aesthetics and beauty,” says Pok Kobkongsanti, lead designer and founder of the Bangkok-based landscape architecture firm T.R.O.P. terrains + open space.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Sat amongst a tangle of paintings, sketchbooks and action figurines in his Bangkok office, Pok riffs on his unique design philosophy. “Personally, I believe that beauty has a kind of energy and when you see it, you want to do something good.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>That attention to aesthetics, along with a commitment to eco-friendly principles, has helped propel a precipitous rise in the industry that has coincided with Thailand’s increasing fascination&nbsp;with landscape architecture.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Over the course of the last decade, Pok and his team have been the creative force behind hospitality venues across Thailand including the Hilton Pattaya and Casa de la Flora in the Andaman resort area of Khao Lak, as well as a host of high-profile residential projects including luxury Bangkok condominiums for Noble and Sansiri.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>When Pok first set off on his path at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand’s most prestigious educational institution, at the age of 16, he’d never even heard of the profession that would thrust him into the limelight.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“I’m a bit of a fluke,” he says, laughing. “In the Thai entrance exams, you choose five programmes and where you end up depends on your scores. I got into the last one, which was landscape design. I had no idea what it was, but one thing soon led to another.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The first of those things was interning with legendary Asia-based architect and landscape designer Bill Bensley, who wrote him a recommendation letter to Harvard University, Graduate School of Design when the Thai economy cratered in the 1998 Asian financial crisis.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>After working in Massachusetts on waterfront parks for four years, he returned to BENSLEY, then known as Bensley Design Studio. “Bill actually called me the first day I graduated. Like, ‘Hey Pok, you back yet?’ He had marked it in his calendar,” he fondly recalls. “To this day he’s still one of my biggest role models.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Indeed, Bensley had no qualms about fast-tracking Pok into a managerial role. “My first project was at the Four Seasons hotel in Hangzhou. Very clean, very traditional, very simple,” he says. “Bill asked me to do the spa there. He said, ‘You can do it!’ and I remember thinking, ‘Really? Are you sure?’ Fortunately it came out alright in the end!”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Despite the temptation to stay with the firm, Pok decided to go it alone – a make-or-break decision. “I knew nothing about going it alone. I didn’t have employees and didn’t bring any of my old clients with me,” he says.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Business was initially slow and brought in primarily by word of mouth. Pok initially struggled to find his own visual style. “When I started out, I wanted to create my own signature design. But I’d only ever worked on company projects, so never had the chance to develop a vocabulary of my own.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div class="pull-quotes-container">Bruce Lee says: ‘Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow. Be like water’… We became ‘water’</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>When asked what changed, he points to the half a dozen Bruce Lee action figures that stand, in various combative poses, on his shelves. Pok explains how he saw a Youtube clip of Lee in which the ‘Little Phoenix’ explains his fighting philosophy.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“Lee says: ‘Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow. Be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water.’</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“That became the main principle in my work. Instead of forcing a signature design onto every project, we became ‘water’. We let the site, the architecture, the requirements and sometimes even the name form the design. That’s how we keep the landscapes so different for each of our projects.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/POK+KOBKONGSANTI+2.jpg/ccb97e58-f7ef-493f-9cc1-a1996b66b123?t=1505214483317" style="width: 740px; height: 493px;" /></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Although the philosophy manifests in myriad ways, certain visual tropes recur in Pok’s work. The firm tends for instance to focus on negative spaces as much as positive ones, using water features and terrains to create wide, visual breaks.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“We don’t build this thing for you to look at it; we build this for the things you don’t see: the open space.” He adds that he’s forever thinking of ways to subtly enhance both a building’s eco-factor and to bring more green into its surroundings. “We’re a little like Robin Hood. We don’t rob the owner, but we do convince them to give green space back to society.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Unlike heroic outlaw’s unique approach to wealth redistribution, T.R.O.P.’s designs are more of a win-win scenario for all parties, especially as landscape design becomes a critical factor in the long-term value of luxury Thai real estate.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“When I first started this company in 2007, nobody cared about landscape architects and the designs were very simple. You would have a pool, a garden, some place to sit. But we changed all of that.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>With additional urban infrastructure projects, including major extensions to public transport systems, continuing to cause havoc on the city’s streets and carbon-copy condos clogging the skyline, Bangkok – and other Southeast Asian cities for that matter – could do with more from Pok Kobkongsanti and his martial arts mantra.</div> &nbsp; <div><a href="http://www.property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/industrial-revolution-10" target="_blank"><strong>More:&nbsp;The industrial revolutionary rocking Hong Kong design</strong></a></div> &nbsp; <h3>RESIDENTIAL</h3> <h3>Pyne by Sansiri</h3> <p><img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/PYNE+2.jpg/8c8db573-451d-49f7-b8ba-7579bb1f0546?t=1505214406689" style="width: 740px; height: 493px;" /></p> <div><strong>The Challenge</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“The pool at Pyne is quite small and, although the location is great, the view is nothing special. In fact, many condominiums in Bangkok have a similar layout with a ‘sky pool’ on top of the parking podium. Since the podium is normally quite ugly, most architects try to decorate it with some features and just stop at the top.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>The Solution</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“We came up with the idea to extend the parking facade upward and wrap it around the top of the pool in order to integrate it into the architecture. This concrete ‘skeleton’ cuts the view into several portions, making it more intriguing. When looking down, instead of seeing one single blue patch, you’ll notice it’s divided into several. The design was so successful that the price today has doubled. It started at THB140,000 (USD4,000) per square metre, which was considered very expensive at the time. Now it’s close to THB300,000.”</div> &nbsp; <h3>HOSPITALITY</h3> <h3>Casa de la Flora</h3> <p><img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/CASA+DE+LA+FLORA.jpg/1e66aa13-e20e-46b5-bb8e-4d3f5274c80e?t=1505214300771" style="width: 740px; height: 443px;" /></p> <div><strong>The Challenge</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“The site for the resort is very compact and there are so many villas. While the property’s striking, minimalist aesthetic is one of its selling points, the initial design plans tried to cram too many rooms into too little space. They hadn’t left any room for plants. It could’ve been called ‘Casa de la Concrete’.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>The Solution</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>"The architect eventually called me and asked if I’d join the team. I convinced the owner to change quite a lot of the design in order to incorporate much greenery. As a result, the project, which was our second hospitality property, took on a much more open feel and gave guests room to breathe.</div> &nbsp; <h3>COMMERCIAL&nbsp;</h3> <h3>Groove at Centralworld</h3> <p><img alt="" src="/documents/10204/0/THE+GROOVE.jpg/652b9528-a61e-4d54-9cb3-bb332d4285cf?t=1505214243614" style="width: 740px; height: 307px;" /></p> <div><strong>The Challenge</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“The brief was to come up with a ‘talk-of-the-town design,’ like Siam Paragon was at the time. But there were already so many shopping malls crowded into that area, so we decided to do something different.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><strong>The Solution</strong></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“Instead of ‘talk of the town’ we proposed ‘walk of the town.’ We convinced Central to donate some of its own land to build a public walkway with a ventilation system beneath it. Basically we built a green wall, so when you look at it from afar you think that the building is sitting on top of the green hill, even though it’s not connected. Now other shopping malls want to do something similar – give back a little bit to the environment.”</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><em>This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.magzter.com/TH/PropertyGuru-International-(Thailand)-Co.,Ltd/Property-Report/Business/214429" target="_blank">Issue No. 141 of PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine</a></em></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><a href="http://property-report.com/detail/-/blogs/open-to-the-elemen-7" target="_blank"><strong>Read next:&nbsp;Meet the engineer who will change your opinion on green buildings</strong></a></div>