Kotchakorn Voraakhom never thought her childhood pastimes -- like boat paddling with friends in the floodwaters in front of her house -- would later signal a catastrophic disaster: a sinking city. To help save her hometown of Bangkok from rising sea levels and climate change, Voraakhom founded the landscape architecture design firm Landprocess. She is also the founder of Porous City Network, a social enterprise working to solve urban environmental problems and increase urban resilience across Southeast Asia by aiding, engaging and educating climate-vulnerable communities about productive landscape design.
In Bangkok, Voraakhom and her team has turned an invaluable commercial property in the heart of the city into Chulalongkorn Centenary Park, a flood-proof, water-retention public green space. Voraakhom also works as a design consultant for the Bangkok250, a major redevelopment project for the city's 250th anniversary. Voraakhom is an Echoing Green Climate Fellow, Atlantic Fellow and Asia Foundation Development Fellow. She received her master's in landscape architecture from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.
To get a panoramic perspective of the pandemic, TED turned to its TED Fellows. From Afghanistan to the US, Brazil to Uganda, India to Russia -- and 17 other countries -- here are their stories.
Continue readingThis green roof and farm offer a Swiss army knife of solutions -- flood control, solar energy, fresh produce, green space for city dwellers, jobs, learning opportunities, and more -- to some of our most pressing urban problems. Landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom tells us how it works.
Continue readingThe term “showing off” gets a bad rap. But for Session 5 of TEDWomen 2018, a lineup of speakers and performers reclaimed the phrase — showing off their talents, skills and whole extraordinary selves. Hosted by TED’s head of conferences, Kelly Stoetzel, and head of curation, Helen Walters, the talks ranged from architecture and the environment to education and grief, taking […]
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