LORANTHACEARCHITECUTRE

My project using Khao Luang as an experimental platform for a sculpture like architecture that enhance experience of hiking, creating a habitable sculpture that will replace a typical camping that use a synthetic materials which are out of the environmental context, hence becoming a part of the forest, which are also a new habitable space.

Khao Luang Map - Activities and Patrolling Routes

Khao luang is one of the richest national park that provide critical habitat for a variety of animals—in some cases, they are the only places that threatened or endangered species have left to call home. the mountain consist of various types of tropical rainforest canopy, due to its peak is as high as 1860 meter above sea level, and are being threatened every minutes, especially the forest margin, where it is being invaded by the locals, vast majority of the forest are being cleared out for rubber plantation and other agriculture.

Ever Green Forest Section - Hornbill Diet

And  these specific area are habitat of one of the most majestic wildlife, hornbill, to be specific, the white crowned hornbill. They are a large bird that can grow up to almost 80 cm in size, but they are a stealthy predator comparing to its size, flying quietly under the forest canopy and hop along the branches scouting for its prey. Even though major diet of hornbill are fruits because it is their water sources, but the favorites are always meat of a small animals or even insects.

Tree Hollow - Hornbill Natural Nesting

During a mating season, in the early of May they will find their partner which will be  living together for its life, and starting to find a place to lay eggs, the interesting part is their nest, they need to find a hollow to nest inside, they will seal off the entrance around May and June, and the female will imprison themselves inside to lay eggs and nursing their kids for up to four months. They will usually come back to the same hollow every year and use it as long as possible. These hollow occurs naturally, from a broken branch that expose the softwood to the weather, and in the wet and humid environment, a microorganism such as  fungus began to grow and degenerate the softwood. And as they are in there, the tree began to heal itself, as the times goes by, then it creates a hollow. So the nesting are very limited for hornbill because it is a long difficult process for one hollow to be occurred, and in nature, a live tree, it will regenerate itself and might close up the hollow, and in dead tree, it will decay and get destroyed by the weather or being eaten by termite. And there are also human influence such as deforestation that decrease their habitat dramatically.

Forest Ranger Gears

This is why patrolling is essential to khao luang and its wildlife, patrolling in is a no an easy task, only five people have to cover ten of hundreds or even thousands square kilometer. So the ranger have to go out regularly, every time they go out, they are carrying up to 20 kg of stuff, in order to patrol only 5 days. And every day they add in patrolling the more weight they have to carry, approximately 1.5 kg more per day, this makes increasing the number of patrolling days is decreasing in the efficiency of patrolling.

Unit Design - Human Proportion

So in order to increase the hornbill limited nesting hollow and enhance the efficiency of  patrolling and wildlife conservatory, i have design a unit, base on human proportion and criteria of living, to make it comfortable but as light and compact as possible, and also imitate the natural habitat of hornbill nesting.

Joint Design - Construction and Materials

The units are constructed by using a joint that was design by using all existing construction materials, that are cheap and can be found easily, they are consist of PVC pipe, L metal bracelet, I mental bracelet, screw and bolt. The joint have four connecting points, two big connection for creating a frame and two small one is for connecting one frame to the others. The connection point are flexible and can be adjust to creating any angle suitable for each unit.

Constriction Process

These unit are to be constructed on site, by choosing the tree in the range of main canopy layer, a big and strong tree that have enough branches to use as a supporting structure , such as a Dipterocarpaceae family, constructed on the ground using joints to connect twigs and branches that can be found in the area, completing one unit and and lift up to the tree using the weight of human and gravity, stacking the unit together creating a series of habitable sculpture that can be recognized as a camping spot and then using clay to cover that unit to reinforce and combining it to become one with the tree.

Natural Overtaking

The unit entrance of human and bird are different the windows are imitation of hollow in term of dimension and shapes to makes hornbill recognize the unit as a possible nesting space. The unit are to be used regularly by the ranger but is to be preserved in the period of hornbill mating season, in this period, the human entrance of the unit will be sealed of using clay leaving only a small opening of windows for hornbill to entered.

The usage of these units are not only improve the patrolling efficiency buy also enhance the hiking experience of tourists, the hiking trail that we use are the same trail with the animals, so along the way we can see the trace of animals that they leave behind such as footprints, the marks on the tree, or sometimes even the sound of it. Most of the animals Nocturnal animals, which will be active at night, they are very sensitive to sound and smells, so by living on top of to tree, we are hiding our presence, hence we can use the unit to observed and monitoring wildlife and also prevent us from dangerous animals.

And this is my project, a sculpture like habitable architecture adaptable to any tree anatomy which enhance hiking and patrolling experience and also profitable for natural wildlife.

UTTHAYAN

Khao Luang National Park - Routes of Activities

To be able to insert a design into specific site we need to understand. starting of by studying about program that is happening in khao luang, which is trekking, and i found that there are three types of trekking happening in khao luang. Forestry's Ranger patrolling, Researcher come and find samples, and tourist come to trekk in khao luang. Ranger patrolling routes happens all over khao luang area but heavily focus on the forest margin because people are illegally cut down the forest to create space for agriculture, and hunting, sometimes also cut down to sell the woods, normally rangers patrol in a minimum group of 5 because illegal deforestation groups are armed and dangerous, and will fight back to the ranger. Ranger also escort the researcher to collect sample, and for tourist we just trek along the route with hunter leading us to a good sightseeing spot.

Khao Luang National Park - Forest Types Location

     From our experience the route that we took it has a very diverse in the characteristic of each area, so I start to research about the forest types in khao luang, there are 6 major types of forest existing in khao luang area. Which are lowland evergreen forest, mid elevated forest, lower montane forest, upper montane forest and river - stream forest.

Khao Luang National Park - Forest Structure

Forest can be classified by high of their location. Lowland evergreen forest can be divide into two parts, the below 300 masl and above 300 up to 600 masl. The area below 300 masl is in a critical situation because it has been heavily disturbed by human cutting down trees for agriculture and leaving only a small area of forest margin on the foot of the mountain, and on the above 300 masl is a semi evergreen forest, which occupying most of the natural landscape. Next is a 600 masl up to 1000 masl, the mid elevated forest, it is  the most beautiful forest of Thailand, it is consist of almost every families of tree species in Thailand, since the area has a lot of moisture fern and moss are covered all around the area such as tree trunk and rocks. The lower montane forest is between 1000 - 1400 masl, it is an expose site along the ridge of the mountain so the trees are not very high and can be as low as 3 meters. And for the upper montane forest it is above 1400 masl. Trees up here have a unique appearance because it has to face to strong wind making the tree often crooked with dense irregular crown. And the last one river and stream forest, it happens along the river, trees here have a deep roots anchor itself into the ground prevent itself from falling during flash flood.

Khao Luang National Park - Routes Obstacle

Along the way each area we are facing different obstacle, in the beginning we are facing massive amount of leech and some mosquito, because the area are still rich with natural resources and wildlife. And as we go we facing some slippery surface in the stream area, but as we go up the route are become more and more extreme, the route track are hard to find, the slope are very steep with a lot of erosion, sometimes tree falls and block the main routes, and as we go to the ridge line the patch is very narrow and not stable because of erosion and strong wind are blowing, and as we reach the camp there are no water source up there.

Types of Survival Shelters

We carry approximately 10 kg backpack with only our things, but hunter carry food, stove, plates and more for all of us, their backpack is about 25kg. And for ranger they have guns and more gear, that will be even more heavy. So instead of carrying hammock and stuff, we can decrease the weight by making the shelter from natural resource, so here are types of shelter already existing, debris shelter, cover yourself using easily accessible natural materials, spider shelter, This shelter is similar to a debris shelter but has an extra dome-like structure at the front, provide you extra room for you to sit up, cook, or more space for your gear.  Wickiup Shelter, start with a tripod to build your base then continue on with more poles as you deem best. The gaps will be filled with leaves and small twigs. It will keeping you warm, and can light a fire inside if necessary. Using existing natural structure, such as cave or tree shapes or hole.

Design Concept

To create a shelter for people to decrease the weight of backpack, to make patrolling or trekking more efficiency. and another important point is that to control the camping site to minimize the contamination area in the forest.

The idea is to create a usable space that co exist with the tree, The low-ground, the design is a simple space, a specific distance between two column that is perfect for  hanging hammock and flysheet. The area is used by common tourist that come with ranger or hunter and only carry a limited amount of items. The middle-ground, a shelter that was design to remain in the forest and need very little modification when needed to use, to make hunter able to decrease the weight from carrying shelter along with them, since they have to carry dry food, stove, center camp, etc. the area is elevated from the ground to protect the space from animals and rain water, and make it easy to spot as a camping site. Last one is, The high-ground, same concept as the middle ground, but this area are designed mainly for military usage, it is hidden up above eye sight and blending in with nature,the space does not only function as shelter but as a bunker when fighting against the illegal deforestation group, and also can also function as an observation tower for tourist in  another time.