Background

The Ban Ten Rum, or Dancing House, is located in Nang Lerng, in the old part of Bangkok. Built approximately 80 years ago, it was turned into a dancing school from the 1950’s to 1979 when it closed down and the house fell into disrepair.

In 2012, Openspace partnered with Kratingdaeng Spirit, the CSR program of Kratingdaeng, formely known as Red Bull Thailand, E-Lerng, a community-based art collective from Nang Lerng, and Khun Tarinee Tamornsuwan, the current house owner, to renovate the Dancing House using community participation. As of now, four phases of this project have been completed, over the span of four years. The project is not finished and more renovations will be undertaken in the future.

Phase One: 2012

The first step of the renovation of the Dancing House entailed fixing the house’s main structure. This included fixing the foundation, as the house was sinking, the columns, the beams and the floorboards of the ground floor. We aimed for maximum conservation of the existing materials, such as the window panels and floorboards, marrying the old and the new. This gave the floor its texture and allowed us to preserve the feel and the history of the house.