Mercedes-Benz's Beautiful Film Captures One Woman's Relationship with Water
How can we live in harmony with nature without compromising our modern life? What can we learn from our ancestors and their traditions to face today’s challenges? These are the questions at the core of She’s Mercedes’ new short film 'To Live with Water' starring Harvard-educated landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom in Bangkok.
According to Kotchakorn, the people of Bangkok considered themselves 'amphibious' for a long time. Living in a city subjected to three sources of water – the Chao Praya river running through Bangkok, the ocean nearby, and the heavy monsoon rain during wet season – people were used to living with water in a harmonious way. However, due to urban development in recent years that sealed the city’s surfaces with concrete, the water can no longer drain and now causes floods. Bangkok is sinking almost as fast as Venice, calling for new impactful solutions that take responsibility for the environmental challenges of our time. “We used to welcome water like a friend, today we face it with fear,” Kotchakorn says.
To help save her hometown of Bangkok from drowning, Kotchakorn founded her own studio, Landprocess, in 2011. As a professor at Thamassat University, she employs a number of her former students and mentors them to become the next generation of landscape architects that, in turn, help their own communities adapt to a changing world. Through her work, Kotchakorn wants to improve modern city life by reconnecting urban spaces with their natural environments, creating a positive ripple effect on people’s lives.
