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HOUSE IN OUR MEMORY
Professor Emeritus Onsiri Panin
“My old house” I call it like this as it is no longer exist as being defeated by the flooding
crisis in 2011. Being defeated does not meant it was ruined, or broken down. The house was still
in good and repairable shape. However, being one of the first house built in Soi Phahon Yothin 63,
alley 2, Anusawari Sub District, Bang Khen District, the single story house has its floor level at 1.00
meter high from ground level. Therefore, it was leveled lower than the alley ground level (the alley
has been raised many time during the past). Mark felt from flooding water in our property shown as
high as 1.50 meters outdoor, and 0.90-1.00 meter indoor. You can clearly imagine how our furniture
had been affected. After water level was lowered, we went in to inspect how damage it was. We
have found that the house structure itself was still in its good condition. The wall, the ceiling, and
the parquet flooring on concrete base were still in good shape. Only few doors were bloated. All
our pretty plantation were destroyed. The survival were only 3-4 big Banyan trees. “Can we repair
them?” we asked, and the answer were “Yes”. However, second question were “If there is flood
coming in the near future, what shall we do?”. At the backside of our property, there is a small canal
which will overflow into the house by half a day raining, already. Are we capable to handle with
many maintenances or not? Therefore, we have discussed among our family, among architects and
designers, and concluded that we need to dismantle the old house, then raise our property’s ground
level higher from previous one around 1.50-1.80 meters. This is to have property general floor level
at 0.50 meter higher than the alley’s level.
Before we decided to dismantle our house, we have thought on springing the whole house
level as practicing in the case of Thai tradition House. However, we consider on the house condition
which is a reinforced concrete structure with flooring not on beam but on 1.00 meter high raised
compact sand above ground beam level inside concrete block framing with partially reinforced to
carry weight of light fibre cement board walls of 0.8 mm thickness in the frame along north-south
side, and east-west side of brick that loaded on ground floor beam.
With its type of construction, the house cannot be sprung up as practicing in the Thai
traditional house cases. Therefore, we have to dismantle it and build up a new house on raised floor
design and split into house into two sectors: the parent’s sector and the daughter’s sector. Professor
Tonkao Panin and Mr.Thanakan Mokasmit are the architect.
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