An Assessment of Sustainable Campus Planning of Silpakorn University Sanam Chandra Palace Campus District, Nakhon Pathom Province

Abstract

Silpakorn University, Sanam Chandra Campus, Nakhon Pathom Province, is part of the Sanam Chandra Palace which is an important historic site of Nakhon Pathom Province.  The university has approved the 20-year master plan aiming for its sustainable environment that, in theory, has to incorporate the environment of the campus and its vicinity, including local developmental plans. This research aims to assess environmental sustainability of Silpakorn University, Sanam Chandra Campus using LEED-ND’s criteria for Smart Location and Linkage (SLL) and Neighborhood Pattern and Design (NPD).  The result will lead to recommendations for improving the campus’s environmental design to achieve environmental sustainability.

The assessment results show that the campus area passes all prerequisite criteria of SLL and scores 22 out of 28 credits, indicating its potential in its smart Location and linkage.  However, it does not pass a prerequisite criteria of NPD, i.e., NPD P1: Walkable Streets.  It also scores merely 18 out of 41 credits, indicating its low potential in sustainable pattern and design due to the lack of continuous sidewalks to facilitate variety of purposes and destinations.

The recommendations towards the campus’s sustainable environment include improving sidewalks and bicycle paths to meet their standards, including adding new ones where absent; having new buildings or improving existing ones to face sidewalks and having shallow setbacks; transforming parking lots in front of buildings into plazas and providing a free public transportation on campus as substitution for absent parkings; and reducing blockages at ground level of buildings to improve connectivities.