Rice Craft

Compound

Location: Ban San Si, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Largely immersed in rice paddy fields, Ban San Si is primarily a rice crop growing and harvesting village. The Rice Craft Compound is a civic village compound making center, that aims to make most of the rice crop by utilizing the bi products to make crafts; rice paper, straw jewelry, hats and weaved roofing sheets. The site has been carefully chosen, being at only 1 to 6 minute oxcart ride from all paddy fields in the village, a 1-minute truck ride to the highway to Chiang Mai City and only a further 22-minute ride to the airport for exportation. The choreography of actions needed to make these crafts is carefully studied (check below) to compose a scheme for this compound. At the initial stage a threshing utility is placed where separation of seed panicle and bi products including straw, tiller and root, takes place. Straw is further separated and taken to the straw weaving facility, where it is cut and sized. The large straws are taken to two beam looms to make weaved roofs for lanna architecture while small straws are used to make jewelry and hats. The rest of the crop waste is then taken to make rice paper. Water canals run adjacent to the compounds fence providing fast and easy supply for rice paper water tubs. Soaking with soda ash is done in these tubs after which the mixture is then taken out using netted frames. From here it is transferred to paper making facility where decoratives are added, then dried and passed through hot and cold presses. A rope runs across the exterior with paper hung for sun drying. In addition to this the compound also has a sale shop, an office compartment and a cooking/dining space.

The compound architecture embraces the pre-established rules of lanna architecture style, so that it can be built by local Ban San Sians without professional supervision or use of heavy-duty machinery.


NOTE: Underlined words/phrases take note of the programs that will be taking place in the compound
Ban San Si Village Experience.mp4
Video showing life at Ban San Si
18°49'14.5"N 99°02'42.4"E: Ban San Si, Chiang Mai, Thailand on Google Maps. Pin has been placed on the site of Rice Craft Compound.



BAN SAN SI

CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

"Just 7½ km from the center of the expanding city of Chiang Mai, Thailand, farmers gather and direct the monsoon waters through an intricate pattern of weirs and canals to fill rice paddies, as their ancestors have for centuries. An intricate community irrigation system not only manages the distribution of water fairly upstream and down, but also allows most farmers to grow a second dry season crop by directing water stored behind the Mae Kuang Dam. However, for almost 10 km, the Mae Kuang River winds inside the city’s newly constructed Outer Ring Road, trapping multiple villages, temples, weirs and hundreds of rice paddies, inside land planned for urban expansion. Meanwhile, dozens of gated subdivisions mushroom along the new ring highway in land designated for agricultural preservation."

- Brian McGrath

VISUAL DIARY

FROM TRAVELING TO CHIANG MAI, THEN A STUDIO IN NEW YORK, TO QUARANTINE IN NEW JERSEY

Starting off the project neck to neck with what seemed like a million strangers in Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, we ended this project graduating in front of a TV screen in corona quarantine. Briefly we also spent time working with our friends at out home studio in Parsons School of Constructed Environment building. What a roller coaster ride! The pictures on right document a bit of the journey.

Design Research - Rice Craft Compound.pdf

DESIGN RESEARCH

PDF

Please go through this document to further understand the research.


NOTE: This has been made to supplement the final images provided above. It is not meant to be viewed as a separate document .

Namra Khalid

Namra Khalid is a multidisciplinary designer currently living in New York City. An activist architect to fight climate change; she is a student of ethnography and history, striving to apply learnings from the vernacular in spaces today to enhance inhabitant experience. During her time at Parsons she was able to conduct architectural design research in Karachi, New York, Rome and Chiang Mai.

When not architecting, you can find her painting, wandering aimlessly and informally interviewing strangers.

Contact

Name: Namra Khalid

Email: khalid.namra@gmail.com

Phone Number: 732.915.6729

Portfolio

namrakhalid.com

Resume

Available upon request