Chat Architects unveils its new project, the Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion, located off the coast of the historic Angsila fishing village in the Mueang Chonburi District of Chonburi Province in the eastern region of Central Thailand. Ang Sila is 60 km from Bangkok.

The former coastal village of Ang Sila in Thailand was once a thriving small-scale fishing town. However, over the past three years, on an ecological scale, unfiltered waste from nearby factories and new suburbs has been released into the rivers and canals, feeding directly into Angsila Bay, increasing ocean pollution.

The resulting diminished water quality and decreased aquatic life and profitability in seafood cultivation have led to the abandonment of traditional fisheries. The younger generation has left their hometown to seek jobs in factories, offices, or retail businesses in nearby Bangkok.
The Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion, designed by Chat Architects, rises as a solution to this: aiming to raise awareness and appreciation of the historic coastal village and revitalise the local economy through a “sea-to-table” dining experience.

The pavilion acts as a floating restaurant, allowing local fishermen to bring small groups of visitors from shore to the pavilion where they can select their oysters in the ocean and prepare fresh to eat.

The structure itself hybridizes the traditional bamboo scaffolding used for oyster and mussel cultivation. Like these scaffoldings, the pavilion is built entirely by Angsila fishermen, utilizing native shallow-ocean bamboo construction techniques that require no power tools.


Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion by Chat Architects. Photograph by W Workspace.


Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion by Chat Architects. Photograph by W Workspace.
 

Project description by Chat Architects

Once a thriving small-scale fishing town, the Angsila community has struggled in past decades to sustain the way of life of its fisheries due to a variety of factors. On an ecological scale, unfiltered waste from nearby factories and new suburbs is released into the rivers and canals, feeding directly into Angsila Bay. The resulting diminished water quality and decreased aquatic life and profitability in seafood cultivation have led to the abandonment of traditional fisheries. In particular, the younger generation has left their hometown to seek more profitable jobs in factories, offices, or retail businesses in nearby Bangkok. As a result, the Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion Project aims to re-vitalize Angsila's struggling fishing/seafood industry through the creation of a new oyster eco-tourism infrastructure prototype.

The pavilion design draws on and “bastardizes” the widely deployed bamboo scaffolding traditionally used for oyster cultivation. When in use, local fishermen bring small groups of visitors from Angsila to the pavilion, where they can handpick oysters pulled from the ocean below, which are then prepared fresh to eat …a sea-to-table dining experience in a remarkable coastal setting.


Angsila Oyster Scaffolding Pavilion by Chat Architects. Photograph by W Workspace.

This new oyster-tasting experience allows the Angsila fisherman to relay their fishing history and oyster cultivation heritage directly to visitors in a new and interactive way. Serving shellfish cultivated right on the scaffolding also ensures seafood freshness for tourists, while providing the Angsila Fishermen with an opportunity to campaign for the protection of Angsila Bay’s sensitive coastal ecology.

When not utilized as a tasting pavilion for eco/tourists, the covered platforms become recreational fishing piers for local fishermen, who bring their families to the platform with fishing poles, bait, and hooks to catch a variety of local fish naturally drawn to the clean, shellfish-filtered waters surrounding the oyster and mussel bundles in the waters below.

The pavilion design innovates from existing everyday, sustainable, inexpensive materials, labor, and construction techniques. Like traditional oyster scaffoldings, the new scaffolding is built entirely by Angsila fishermen, utilizing local shallow-ocean bamboo construction techniques that require no power tools. The fishermen manually drive each bamboo column into the ocean floor, "pogo-stick" style. Rejected car seatbelts, acquired at a discount due to discoloration from local auto plants, are used to tie all of the bamboo members together. A graphic red (complimenting the greenish bay waters), light-filtering agricultural tarp, commonly used in nearby nurseries, shades visitors from the ocean sun, yet allows for the passage of ocean breezes.

More information

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Architects
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Chat Architects. Architect.- Chatphong Chuenrudeemon.
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Project team
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Chat Architects.
Angsila Fishermen Community.
INDA Chulalongkorn University.
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Client
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International Program in Design and Architecture (INDA), Chulalongkorn University Thailand. Thailand Office of Contemporary Art and Culture.
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Dates
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2023.

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Location
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Angsila fishing village in the Mueang Chonburi District of Chonburi Province in the eastern region of Central Thailand. Ang Sila is 60 km from Bangkok.
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Photography
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W Workspace.
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Chat Architects is a small architectural practice located in Bangkok, Thailand, established by Chatphong Chuenrudeemon. The office specializes in design research, focusing on documenting street vernacular typologies affectionately called "Bangkok Bastards"- which become the foundations for the Practice's locally-rooted designs.
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