Kotchakorn Voraakhom

Kotchakorn Voraakhom (Thai: กชกร วรอาคม, born 1978) is a Thailand landscape architect and chief executive officer of Porous City Network, a social enterprise that looks to increase urban resilience in Southeast Asia. She is also the founder of the Koungkuey Design Initiative, which works with communities to rebuild public spaces. She campaigns for more green space in cities and is a 2018 TED fellow.

Kotchakorn Voraakhom in 2018

Quotes

• I still remember sneaking into the canals as a child and seeing the greenery along them. Already there was less and less nature around them, but it was such a healing moment for me. My house was a rowhouse along the main road. We had no backyard, just the street. The only walks you could do were very hot, very dangerous and very polluted.
  • An Architect Who Mixes Water and Nature to Build Resilience The New York Times (March 7, 2022)

• My identity is confusing. In Thai culture I’m a little bit American, and in American culture I’m very Thai. I don’t want gender to be another burden.
  • An Architect Who Mixes Water and Nature to Build Resilience The New York Times (March 7, 2022)

"The architect helping sinking cities fight flooding" (2022)

"The architect helping sinking cities fight flooding", CNN Style (October 28, 2022)

• The floods changed my life.

• For us, climate change is primarily a water crisis,” she said. “Our people can feel its impacts in their daily lives, each year through worsening floods, rising sea levels, and severe drought.

• In many sinking cities, including Bangkok, the current urban infrastructure is not fit for purpose and is “reducing our ability to adapt (to climate change),” noting that many of Bangkok’s waterways and canals have been destroyed or have fallen into disrepair. “We need to fix them and rethink the way we develop (cities).

• For us, as a city of water, the only way is to go back to our amphibious culture and reclaim the relationship with water.

• To date, Thailand has tried to tackle its flooding problem by building “higher and higher dams,” she said, arguing that this is the wrong approach and a solution “based on fear.”

• The central question sinking cities like Bangkok need to focus on is: “how are we going to live with the water, without fear?” said Voraakhom. This idea of “living with the water” lies at the heart of her design approach.

• The most important thing is to (follow) the wisdom of people from the past who used to live with water.

• Being resilient is the ability to thrive and to survive,” Voraakhom said. “We have that ability as human beings, but our urban infrastructure does not have it and doesn’t allow us to have it.

• Green, climate resilient areas are a “good long-term investment” for cities, she said, and “the best solution for the next generation.