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 Three: 2014

The third phase of the renovation saw the repair of the first floor walls, to allow the house to be in working form as soon as possible. Walls and locks were necessary if there were to be events and exhibitions in this space. To design the walls, we held three participatory design workshops: on with elderly people from the community, one with children, and one with the house owner. The final design allowed various panels on the wall to be moveable, allowing for exhibitions to be interactive and spill onto the walls.