Forest-to-Farm-to-Table: A Co-being Foodscape

BAN TAKLANG VILLAGE, SURIN, THAILAND SPRING 2023 | Prof. Boonserm Premthada In Ban Taklang Elephant Village, the lives of elephants and their mahouts (handlers) are enmeshed; they eat and sleep under the same roof. Mahouts prioritize their elephants’ nutrition, constantly providing fruits and vegetation and walks to water. The project is an interconnected system of occupiable multi-scale table typologies catered to elephants for dining and resting, water collection during the monsoon season, and passive farming. Located on the bank of a pond along a forest path, the tables are a pitstop for elephants and mahouts to promote the elephants’ health and happiness. The design gained real-life context during my studio trip to Ban Taklang to truly witness the site and the local lifestyle. While the village’s devotion to the elephants encapsulated the atmosphere, it was clear that throughout the arid summer season, agriculture and reliable water supply is compromised due to lack of funds. The project gained an economic lens by facilitating community engagement in a farming cooperative to sustain agricultural demands and ensure rich soil, effective irrigation, and water recycling systems.

The initial concept materializes the trees’ role as sustenance for elephants in the form of satellite “plates” or “tables”. Developed into a domestic structure built with the local construction style, these tables are aggregated and scaled to suit Ban Taklang’s climate, culture, and elephants’ needs.

The design proposes a multiphase agricultural system, which capitalizes on the rainy season for water collection, irrigation and planting. The pond acts as elephant refreshment and surplus water supply. The pathside land is currently prepared for banana farming and can be further cultivated.

Aligning with elephant’s habits and climatic cycles enables a fairly passive, regenerative system. The planters consistently grow Napier grasses, which are a resilient dietary staple, and seasonally grow bananas, sugar cane, and pineapples.

initial concept | trees as plates

Site

elephants travel up to 20 km each day through forest towards a water source, eating trees and vegetation along the way

site plan

program plan

Site

systems

Dry Season Site (on pond)

Rainy Season Site (above pond)

The siting at a pond is critical because it is the elephants’ destination for bathing and nourishment. The pond informs the distribution of table typologies and their seasonal use. Every element is designed such that it can be sourced and constructed locally, using the village’s raw timber post-and-beam building technology.