“Our intention is to build first a community, then a mall.“

Summary

This study is meant to test the 12-Step Well-Being Framework for Tropical Cities and its potential to be used by citizen scientists and amateur enthusiasts, without prior training or deep understanding of the fields of architecture, urban planning, materials, and community spaces.

Community mall theCOMMONS in Bangkok was observed over 2 days, on Wednesday 17th and Friday 19th of January 2024.

The mall scored highly using the 12-step evaluation:

Personal Intention

Some of the questions I want to answer:

• [ ] Would I find the study engaging?
• [ ] How well can I apply a framework to a building I only see as a customer?
• [ ] Will it be valuable? (To theCOMMONS, myself, wider society…)
• [ ] Would it spark conversations?
• [ ] Will I experience any challenges using the framework?
• [ ] Could this process be extended and used more broadly by other amateur researchers and enthusiasts? (I.e. Citizen science.)

The Framework

Developed by Jamie Ding, Feranda Chua, and Yann Follain, as part of WY-TO Group architecture studio in Singapore, and explained in their book Well-Being for All: A Holistic Framework for Tropical Cities.

The framework suggests its definition of well-being:

The ability of people and planet to live in harmony in a way that brings about sustainable flourishing, growth and restoration in the dimensions of the natural environment; the heritage, development and circularity of the built environment; individual and community health (physical, social, psychological, eudaimonic); holistic education (technical skills, soft skills, creativity); resilient workforce and governance; participation in leisure and culture; economic contentment; a sense of play, agency and choice; resulting in the highest possible quality of life for all current and future communities.