CHAT architects

🙏, Harvard GSD.

As the academic year comes to a close, we’re looking back on some of our Spring 2026 public programs! When architect Chatpong Chuenrudeemol spoke at the GSD this semester, he detailed his longstanding fascination with “Bangkok Bastards.” These improvised architectural forms, including improvised canal crossings made of long-tail boats to ad hoc structures of corrugated metal, define his home city’s urban landscape. Such “homegrown concoctions, created by everyday people to solve everyday problems in everyday life,” also inspire Chuenrudeemol’s practice. Please watch Chuenrudeemol’s full lecture (link in bio) to hear him discuss his @chatarchitects projects in Thailand including Angsila Oyster Pavilion, Na-Eh Bamboo Market for the Indigenous Karen Pwo Community, Indigo Loom House, and Samsen STREET Hotel. Chuenrudeemol has been teaching an option studio at the GSD, “Shophouse Metropolis,” focused on re-imagining one of the most ubiquitous building types in Bangkok. Introducing Chat’s lecture, Department of Architecture Chair Grace La noted his “ingenuity in creating a living tradition of bottom-up architecture, shaped by necessity and culture.” These overlooked conditions reveal an alternative architectural intelligence rooted in necessity and adaptation. What might it mean to see these informal practices as central to how cities are made? For Chuenrudeemol, “this beautiful underbelly of Bangkok and Thailand” offer a new way to think about—and design—our physical environment. Watch more recordings of GSD public programs on our YouTube Channel.

RQ Apartments
(photos by W Workspace)

The RQ Apartment is the 3rd phase of the RQ Sports Community Development, predicated on adaptive re-use of existing structures and building walkable, human-scaled neighborhoods … over needless demolition/unnecessary new construction of formulaic condo high-rises.

RQ Apartment involves the transformation of a tropical, Mid-Century Modern 4-storey flat. This uniquely Bangkok building typology, once a common urban residential building type, is fast disappearing from the city.

The adaptive reuse strategy involved stipping away decades of building additions that clogged the original open/airy facades which allowed the building to breath. The design revived the iconic central open-air glass stair that feed two spacious family units per floor. The original balconies on the south façade were uncovered and expanded, allowing tenants to sit, eat, and relax… enjoying sounds of kids at the public pools below. Pop-out window boxes – breakfast nook, working table, and daybed - were added to the east and west façades allowing each unit to have an active interface between interiors and exterior. The bay windows push interior life to the building’s periphery, allowing the tenants to visually engage with the surrounding sports community. In turn, vertical snapshots of life on the facade inject add a sense of life to the neighborhood. The earth-tone terrazzo, orange clay tiles, and teal window frames were based on the original color material pallete that from the original 1970’s buildings on site.

RQ Apartment residents choose to live here, not to escape from their surroundings, but to actively engage with its community.