Buildingscape Design Guidelines for Mass Transit Station Areas: A Case Study of the Central Commercial District, Bangkok

Abstract

This article examines the international principles of urban design focusing on visibility and accessibility, based on the related literature and case studies. The aim is to recommend buildingscape design guidelines for mass transit station areas which increases visibility and accessibility to be an appropriate level to preserve the meaning of place for the station areas including 1) being a versatile public space and 2) being an area that contributes to the visual perception of the buildingscape in the issue of safety and identity of the area, which means; it can maintain the level of “places in the city” balance with “nodes of networks” of the public mass transit station area, it is a feature of the good station area. This study selects the central commercial district of Bangkok as a case study and uses urban morphology study tool which can be displayed on the actual map according to the intensity of the color as an empirical measurement.

From the study, it was found that the major problem is the law that does not consider the differences specific to the context of each area, especially in the area around the mass transit station where have the elevated structures as apparent physical variables which are the direct impact. Therefore, under the condition that such elevated structures cannot be changed. However, if relevant laws can be added through a buildingscape design guideline for the mass transit station areas.

As a result of the study, the researcher recommends the principles as guidelines for the buildingscape design for mass transit station areas as follows; 1) the proportional distance: determining the proportion of the podium height to the horizontal distance corresponds to the perspective of people at all levels including station structure, elevated tracks and skywalks. 2) land/ building/ surrounding utilization: requiring publicity to infiltrate the area and surrounding buildings where are around the station area. 3) architectural elements: All building foundations are required to focus on the architectural elements on the façade that represent the safety and identity of the area. The connection should be transparent. The corner must be cut to the appropriate size.