Group takes battle for Mahakan community to Prawit

The Association of Siamese Architects (ASA) will ask Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon to step in to stop the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) “uprooting” the entire Mahakan community.

ASA president Atchapol Dusitanond will write to Gen Prawit in his capacity as chairman of the Rattanakosin Committee, a national board that oversees conservation and development in the old quarter of Rattanakosin. The ASA said the BMA plans to demolish 18 remaining vintage houses in April despite strong resistance from residents, academics, historians and architects.

Last year, a tripartite panel including historical and architectural experts from ASA was set up to verify which of the houses in the community were worth conserving.

After a series of field studies, the panel found at least 18 houses with unique architectural values should be kept in their original places, while the rest of the structures could be relocated for other uses in the community.

The ASA also insisted all the residents must be allowed to live in their community, to keep Mahakan Fort as a “living museum”.

The ASA in July last year held a meeting with the BMA, security authorities, community residents and academics to discuss conserving the structures in the community and to allow the community to stay.

In August, the ASA sent a petition to the Rattanakosin Committee about a proposal for the Mahakan Community’s conservation. Then, the committee asked the BMA to consider preserving the community.

The letter accused the BMA of not taking heed of previous tripartite studies and the Rattanakosin Committee’s suggestion. The ASA asked Gen Prawit to order the BMA and security forces now stationed in the community to move out and stop intimidating people.

The association also asked for the setting up of a new committee with local community and civic society participation to reconsider the case.

The move is seen as a bid to stop the BMA from uprooting the whole community to develop a new public park. The BMA is set to remove all 18 vintage houses by mid-April.

The Mahakan community and the BMA have been at loggerheads for more than a decade.

The BMA paid compensation to local residents years ago.

However, residents later changed their minds and offered to return the compensation funds they received in exchange for the right to stay.