In the old neighborhood of Banglamphu, Bangkok, there is a 20,000 m2 abandoned commercial center called “New World” Mall. Sometimes illegally photographed and often fantasized about in ghost stories and daredevil videos on the internet, the so-called contemporary ruin draws people’s curiosity. Opened in 1984, the mall catalyzed for the whole neighborhood economy until it closed its doors in 2004. A visitor was killed during the demolition process of seven floors, which were illegally built. Legal action followed against the owner of the New World Mall, who eventually lost his title to the landlord.
Falling into disrepair, the mall with a collapsed roof quickly became a post-apocalyptic place where water held in and mosquitoes abounded, leaving the surrounding local community with no other choice but to introduce koi fish into the mall to deal with the plague. Unsurprisingly, the dystopian fish palace turned into another illegal urbex destination and abandoned urban exploration site, commonly found within the city center of Bangkok.
From Banglamphu, in Saphan Taksin, one of the busiest stations of the Bangkok Skytrain, I recall reading the large advertising panel: “ICON SIAM: the icon of eternal prosperity,” which refers to the 1.6 billion dollar award-winning mall built in 2018 and still in operation. Strikingly, another icon, Sathorn Unique, rises into view behind the ad for the human eye. The abandoned, decaying, and monumental 47-story luxury estate tower, whose construction began in 1990 but was never completed, still stands in Roman-style columns designed by architect Rangsan Torsuwan. This contemporary ruin swapped its name to ‘The Ghost Tower’ during the financial crisis that gripped much of East and Southeast Asia in the late 1990s. The Thai market collapsed in 1997, leaving millions of households without savings overnight and causing an abrupt stop to at least 300 massive development projects in the capital alone.
Malls, as well as condominiums and luxury hotels, have long been advertised in Thailand as pillars of the “future” and have benefited from massive investments ever since 1984, when the Thai government enacted land titling legislation that delivered more than 19 million titles to landowners and opened the market to foreign capital. These investment projects, advertised as “the best the world has to offer,” embody a standardization of Thai society and the inability of public institutions to regulate land development. The resulting “laissez-faire” leads to a staggering loss of social vitality and the destruction of the commons. Thai citizens continue to lose access to land occupied by amenities they can no longer afford to use.
This ironic dichotomy of Thai speculative urban development which has so far turned buildings into either “icons of eternal prosperity” or “offbeat sites with abandoned skyscraper” (as for the caption given by Google maps for the Sathorn Unique Tower) has not permitted to address the most pressing issues of the capital: finding a sense of belonging again…or so it seemed, until recently.
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The New World Mall has epitomized a peaceful local fight to reclaim alternative public space for the community of Banglamphu and other neighborhoods in the city. I met Dr. Supitcha Tovivich in Bangkok, an architect and professor at Silpakorn University, who has so far spearheaded two temporary uses in the abandoned mall, a sign of growing urban activism in Bangkok. During the pandemic, she told me, she contacted the landlord of the ‘New World’ Mall, and both viewed this contemporary ruin as an opportunity to empower the community and change people’s perspective on the colossal space.
Together with Gaysorn Lamphu, a local association established nearly two decades ago, where local seniors train kids in their community as city guides, Tovivich organized the first-ever “New World” exhibition for the local residents, exclusively. The concept was simple: every day, 20 different objects were displayed inside the building, and locals from the community were invited to share their memories of the building.
“While I primarily saw the building as a strategic location, a strong structure, and an empty space, locals saw it full of meanings. Inside the mall, they saw things we couldn’t possibly see anymore: former gold shops, a concert hall on the top floor […] Locals started to engage more, bringing their own objects to the art event to add more to the exhibition!” says Tovivich.
Following the first exhibition, the mall received extensive publicity in the news. Tovivich intended to flood the internet with new images and articles about the New World Mall that would leave a new digital footprint of the space. It would portray a reborn structure full of possibilities, rather than a dystopian space, only suitable for illegal sightseeing and tourists hungry for creepy stories of a contemporary ruin. And she thought a new intervention could reinforce its new identity. Tovivich asked Pol Huiprasert to direct the art exhibition called “Reflection from Light Sources.” He curated and designed most of the art installations (8 of 9 pieces), and he invited a group of young designers to create one piece.
In 2022, the abandoned mall temporarily opened its walls to the public as part of the Bangkok Design Week and became the highlight of the largest design event in Southeast Asia. The festival is organized and hosted by the Creative Economy Agency, which referred to the event of “New World” as The Return of Old Building Revival Mission. Its opening has marked a significant turn in urban regeneration practices across the Thai capital. Although the event was ephemeral and lasted only a week, this process laid the groundwork for profound positive dynamics in the local community and, one dares to say, for the future of the city.
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From an apocalyptic building to a hipster art destination, the multi-layered exhibition at the Bangkok Design Week not only spoke to the potential of the old mall being restored in the future but also to the history of the area and the necessity of considering other such structures for alternative regeneration of public space in Bangkok. During our conversation, Tovivich pointed out that “The first year, the aim was to use art as an excuse for people to engage again with the building and revisit it. New World Mall was used as a box for collecting the memories of the neighborhood from the people. Many stories were never collected online because they existed before the internet. […] The second exhibition, this time open to the public, ought to bring people from outside for business opportunities and a renewed image popularity”.
In the same year, the “New World” intervention echoed various initiatives that advocate for more local action to preserve landmarks across the country. For example, Awakening Bangkok, the fifth edition of Time Out Bangkok’s signature festival, showcased 37 light and digital art shows at 20 different locations. The installation, named RE:VIVE, metaphorically shone a light on derelict places in the city. It revealed untold stories and sparked a conversation about a desired, sustainable future for buildings. Another exhibition at The Bangkok Art & Culture Center (BACC), titled Something was there: the fading memories of Bangkok Contemporary Architecture, used photography to question the speed at which architectural landmarks are being demolished, and with them, people’s memories.
Slowly, there is a growing interest in decaying buildings and their potential to foster socialization and safeguard memories in Bangkok. My two-year research project at Chulalongkorn University revealed that Bangkokians perceived a contemporary ruin in the city center as a valuable opportunity for additional public space in the future, as well as a symbol of its history, eventually becoming icons that support their identity.
Most of the local residents whom I spoke with were upset about the disappearance of landmarks and suggested the ‘New World’ Mall could become a green park, a school, a museum, an art fair, a fashion show, a food market, or a jazz club, giving urban planners plenty of ideas for its adaptive reuse. Beyond Bangkok, in the second-largest city of Thailand, Chiang Mai, researchers have stepped up to protect the collective memories threatened by rapid urban development. They are currently documenting in archives the disappearing traditional community life of the locals.
A non-businessman owner; a sound-built structure; a strong community; interesting storytelling; yes, says Tovivich, a combination of fortunate factors played a key role in the successful temporary reuse of the mall. However, regenerating massive abandoned private properties for public purposes is a path fraught with pitfalls. However, it is a solution to reclaim public space and avoid large-scale destruction and displacement in the city centers of Southeast Asian cities. Typically, a contemporary ruin has a strategic location, excellent accessibility, and an aura that resonates with people, yet they are ofter underrated.
Tovivich and the team behind the abandoned ‘New World’ Mall project successfully demonstrated that community-led initiatives could pave the way to revive these ghosts of a troubled past into a brighter urban future. She will continue the project in the Banglamphu neighborhood (near Khao San Road), building momentum in Bangkok with the participation of local residents. And perhaps finally, these abandoned buildings could be true to the names they were given.
