BANGKOK HAUNTED

The punched out teeth in the smile of Bangkok

If visitors to Thailand want to see ancient ruins of Thailand’s past glory they visit the ancient temples of Ayutthaya, the splendid and formidable structures of their time. For the lack of temple ruins in Bangkok we’ve made it our mission to a different type of ruins, the ruins of the 90′s economic boom and bust, the modern day symbols of wealth and power that were not destroyed by invading Burmese armies but by the dynamics of our complex economic system.

Whilst Ayutthaya was raised to the ground Bangkok is still standing strong only peppered with roughly 300 unfinished major real-estate projects, the legacy of 1997 financial crisis in which the entire Thai economy collapsed. Today many of the projects are being resumed yet there are still buildings standing among the glittering skyline like knocked out teeth in the bright smile of Bangkok, scattered and abandoned in various stages of construction, over-grown remnants that have often merely reached basement levels but sometimes real giants soaring up to 50 floors. They linger on for years, decaying before our eyes, forsaken symbols of the nineties economic boom and bust, protruding from the urban landscape of a tropical mega city whilst the city itself moves on in its relentless growth. It’s urban life and death next to each other, these parallels that are so typical for Bangkok, providing the city with yet another fascinating urban layer.

For many they’re eyesores, for us they are more than simply decaying concrete mammoths, they’re witness of a Bangkok period that is very well part of the urban DNA, frozen symbols of the city’s development from an insignificant trading post to an international metropolis. They are the playgrounds for urban explorers but their number is shrinking, as mentioned most of the abandoned skyscrapers have now been resumed and have become or are becoming the glittering skyscrapers they were destined to be but others are still towering like giant, intimidating hollows in which time has stopped.

Once you enter those buildings you probably won’t find a licensed tour guide roaming around with a group of yellow-capped tourists holding flags thus this sort of venture is neither promoted in a guide book nor on the “to-visit-list” of Bangkok visitors. At this point we need to say that it is against the law(!) and dangerous. So, you neither want your family to bail you out of jail nor pay the hospital fees for you.

The most prominent of these ghost towers is the Sathorn Unique, a 47-storey abandoned residential tower, haunting the skyline on the southern tip of Sathorn Road just a stone-throw away from BTS Saphan Taksin (stone-throw away gets en eery meaning here)

Making it into the world’s top-ten of the largest abandoned man-made structures, it has its own feel and atmosphere some say it’s creepy others find it fascinating, however… if you’re from Bangkok, don’t ever take your Blackberry addicted girlfriend into this place, one careless and wrong step and you may disappear in a hole though the journey downwards would be long enough to type a final message into your BB.

This said we strongly advice you to NOT ENTER this building and if you do so it is at YOUR OWN RISK. This building is private property.

There’s been a lot of stories and myths around this former sister project of the now famed Bangkok State Tower (also called Lebuna State Tower).
That building was as well abandoned for a number of years, hard to believe if you have ever sipped your Martini at their Sirocco bar. Whilst the Bangkok State Tower was revived its sister Sathorn Unique perished and has been in a state of decay ever since. According to engineers a structure may be exposed for some ten years to tropical climate conditions after that, you better build it again from scratch instead of repairing it.

So, the question that many of the architecture fans of Bangkok haunts is whether Sathorn Unique will ever be revived given its 80% completion. For most Bangkokians however this building has become a daily sight and those living in its shadow are a bit weary given that with nearly 50 storeys this building is the dominant structure and people wonder whether the whole thing will collapse one day. Having to deal with steel and rubble falling from a almost 200m above and smashing through a roof and a car on one occasion, or dropping into the surrounding bushes gives indeed a reason to look sceptical towards one’s bedroom ceiling at night.

What is a worry for some is a relief for others, especially homeless who’ve seeked refuge there and were able to choose to inhabit one of the 659 residential units or set up camp on the roof top with its half finished dome. Today lots of weird and religious symbols bear witness of its former inhabitants who have now been banned by blocking access to the upper residential units from level 9 onwards and a grilled chicken munching guard has been placed permanently at the base of the tower making only the pack of fierce looking dogs the only residents of the tower.

Over the past years Sathorn Unique has not only attracted the homeless and apparently “religious sects” but also the creative folks among Bangkokians with art projects involving Sathorn Unique, also architecture fans keep their eye on the development of the tower and photographers use this uncommon micro-cosmos as a backdrop for nudity shots, which indeed makes some bizarre pictures.

So, what do people think of it? What do you think of decaying buildings in the middle of residential zones? Usually, foreigners look at the building with a question mark on the forehead. “Maybe for us they’re great eyesores, because Americans can’t deal with things that are unresolved,” says Paul Katz, a principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox architects in New York, who has spent time in Bangkok. “But Asian cultures understand the world isn’t perfect…everything isn’t always finished.” Mr. Katz describes the buildings as “poetic,” adding they’re “not completely boring to look at, especially when things start growing out of them.” and we totally agree with Mr. Katz, especially if you got trees and bushes growing in almost 200meter height and mosses and grass turn balconies into a second Wimbledon ground.

It is these things that you find only in Bangkok and if you’re on top of the building feeling like Will Smith in “I’m Legend” overlooking this awesome city, you wish they’d neither resume construction nor tear it down because it would bereave Bangkok of one of its odd but fascinating features, a feature that makes Bangkok what it is, a place that surprises us, intrigues us and never fails to truly bore us regardless whether you’re the average tourist or a die-hard urban explorer.

We will post more on the status of abandoned buildings in Bkk soon. If you have any questions or want to join us on some exploration get in touch with us here on Facebook.