Tua-Bang Ko-Chan

TUA-BANG  KO-CHAN

Architecture from Fishing Nets

Rooted in a broader discourse on health-oriented spatial design, Tua-Bang Ko-Chan emerges from a collaborative initiative between the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) and the Healthy Space Forum, which sought to reimagine community spaces as platforms for collective well-being. ATTA STUDIO initially focused on the Bang Yai Canal community, situated near the estuary at Cape Saphan Hin, Phuket, envisioning a community pavilion that would serve as both a gathering space and a launch point for kayaking activities dedicated to waste collection and ecological exploration.

While the original proposal was presented to Phuket City Municipality, it remained unrealized. The framework of Thailand Biennale Phuket 2025, particularly its 7SALA program inviting artists to propose site-specific interventions, provided a renewed opportunity for the project to take shape in an artistic context.

The installation reinterprets the vernacular forms and material culture of Bang Yai Canal, weaving narratives of settlement and livelihood along its waterways. Historically, local fishing communities relied on small wooden “duck-tail” boats to cast and retrieve nets — tua-bang and ko-chan, words that mean “net” in the local dialect. Drawing upon these traditions, the structure translates the fishing net into an architectural gesture: an inhabitable form that resonates with both memory and place.

Importantly, Tua-Bang Ko-Chan extends beyond its role as installation art. Upon the conclusion of the Biennale, the work will be dismantled and reconstituted as a permanent community pavilion along Bang Yai Canal. In doing so, it resists the ephemerality often associated with exhibition-making, minimizing construction waste while reaffirming its commitment to public use and collective benefit.

Thailand Biennale Phuket 2025
29 November 2025 – 30 April 2026
Sand Yard, Saphan Hin, Phuket