Lecture on Urban Living LabPedagogy and Socio-Cultural Innovation inBangkok's Food and Sacred Spaces

Time: 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm, Oct. 13, 2026

Venue: Lecture Hall, 6th Floor, School of Architecture, Weijin Road Campus, Tianjin University

Speaker: Dr. Prin Jhearmaneechotechai, Associate Professor and Head of the Departmentof Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty ofArchitecture, Chulalongkorn University

About the Speaker: Dr. Prin Jhearmaneechotechai is an urban planner and academic working at theintersection of urban heritage conservation, digital mapping, and food culture, focusingon the "Ordinary Urban Heritage"-the everyday lived experiences, sacred spaces, andlocal foodscapes of historic districts such as Rattanakosin and Bangkok's Chinatown. His"Living Lab" approach bridges local communities and policy-making bodies such as theBangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) through co-creation platforms andparticipatory design. He leads projects integrating gastronomy with urban innovation,most notably the Ordinary Urban Heritage Map of Chinatown - Chulalongkorn University(2025 - 2026), and publishes on food and urban identity. Utilizing advanced digitalmapping and GlS, he bridges academic discourse on food heritage with urbandevelopment in Bangkok.

About the Lecture:

In contemporary architectural and urban design education, spatial training hastraditionally prioritized physical form and macro-scale development over the livedexperiences of people. Consequently, "Ordinary Urban Heritage"-the everydayfoodscapes and sacred spaces embedded within local communities-is frequentlyoverlooked in conventional studios. As historic districts face an urgent crisis of survivaldue to a lack of generational succession and rapid urbanization, how can designeducation and research move beyond physical archiving to become a catalyst for community and cultural resilience?This presentation introduces the upgraded digital platform, ouhmap.com-a socio-cultural and socio-technical ecosystem developed through Chulalongkorn University' sacademic research and contemporary design education. Serving as a vital mechanismfor re-centering everyday heritage, this platform acts as a mediating bridge, connectingtop-down urban policy frameworks with bottom-up community initiatives through Chula' s Urban Living Lab pedagogy. By integrating rigorous research and student-engaged learning-capturing oral histories,culinary and ritual narratives, and traditions reinterpreted for contemporary contexts-intoan accessible digital interface, the platform recontextualizes everyday life into a vitalcultural asset. This framework bridges Chulalongkorn University's academic mission withlocal communities across two continuous phases of Urban Living Lab studios: the2024 - 2025 Rattanakosin project, which engaged students and residents to valorizelocal food assets, and the 2025 - 2026 Chinatown expansion, which maps complexidentities including five distinct Chinese dialect groups and their sacred-culinarynetworks. Through "Unveiling Hidden Foodscape and Sacred Routes," the platformcurates experiential journeys that reveal the social and spiritual fabric of the district.Crucially, interactive features transform passive visitors into active "Heritage Caretakers,"creating a dynamic, longitudinal record that allows researchers, students, andcommunities to monitor the evolution of these landscapes over time.This presentation explores how academic platforms empower local vendors andintegrate student learning into urban strategies. Finally, this session invites a globaldialogue on the future of urban heritage and design education: how can the synergybetween academic pedagogy, community engagement, and digital technology drive therecognition and resilience of ordinary urban heritage, effectively elevating everydayfoodscapes and sacred spaces to their rightful place as enduring cultural assets?