Most people who travel to the Thai capital of Bangkok pass through Sukhumvit or Silom, major streets in the city that are well-known for their commercial offerings. But more recent visitors are now going to Charoen Krung, one of the capital’s oldest neighborhoods.
“It was the first road in Bangkok. It was the place of Bangkok 160 years ago. Everything was there—the bank, the hotel, the tallest building, which was then seven stories,” said Pichit Virankabutra, deputy director of Thailand’s Creative Economy Agency, at Fortune’s Brainstorm Design conference, at the MGM Cotai in Macau on Thursday.
But in today’s Bangkok, old is now the new hip. The city has tried to revitalize Charoen Krung since the mid-2010s. The neighborhood, which had become rundown after decades of neglect, is now cool again as new businesses like boutique inns, cafés, and art galleries coexist with the old neoclassical architecture and shophouses.
Pichit said that shaping Charoen Krung to become the intersection of Bangkok’s past, present, and future was a unique challenge. “When we moved in, it was a ghost town. We couldn’t even find lunch. You had to go like an hour out of town by taxi to get lunch,” he said.
Thailand’s Creative Economy Agency, which also oversees Thailand’s Creative & Design Center, is housed in the Grand Postal Office, which was built in the 1940s in the Charoen Krung neighborhood.
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Pichit explained that the approach the agency took to revitalize the neighborhood involved a mix of data and trust. The CEA went around town to research, collecting data on the history of the buildings and whether they were structurally sound enough to be rented out to new tenants.
“Most of the houses are Chinese-owned, and the third generation will carry on [holding] the ancestral place. They won’t sell it, but they won’t use it. It’s like all of the area was closed down,” Pichit explained.
Beyond learning about these buildings, Pichit said the toughest part of trying to regenerate the district was building trust to get the community to be part of the restoration efforts. To “break the ice,” the agency launched a photo-taking project. He explained that the agency photographed 80 families in the area and used those photos as a part of a display in a large public area so they could be introduced to the public.
“I think half of the families that were in the program didn’t have family photos for over 30 years. So it’s like a little story, and it gave them a sense of ownership, and they have a sense of place,” Pichit said. “Right now, when we would like to do anything with them, it’s easy because they know us, and they’re proud.”
Working with the community and gathering data were just the initial steps. As the old buildings were refurbished and family stories reestablished, the neighborhood also started hosting events like Design Week to “give an idea [of] how the buildings could be used.” The agency also worked with local businesses that were still in the neighborhood to create products that could appeal to younger generations.
Other cities are also trying to explore ways to revive historic areas. Macau, for example, is trying to refresh old neighborhoods as part of the city’s effort to diversify its economy and rely less on the gambling sector. MGM, the host partner of Brainstorm Design, is trying to invest in the Barra district, one of Macau‘s oldest areas and the home of the A-Ma Temple, ostensibly the city’s namesake.
