Jeffrey van der Sluijs

Bangkok Wakes to Rain

Enchanting the Watermachine 


In Bangkok Wakes to Rain I explore how water, culture, and urban transformation intertwine within Bangkok’s amphibious landscapes. The central question guiding my work is whether a city can relearn to live with water. I propose a regenerative framework that slows down the water cycle and draws on traditional ecological knowledge and community practices. Rather than offering a mere strategy for climate resilience, the project reimagines how intimacy with water, heritage, and collective futures can be restored. 

The project originates from the contrast between my mother’s migration to the Netherlands and the Bangkok she left behind. Historical photographs show how deeply amphibious life once shaped the city. Today, many of its remnants survive mostly as tourist decorum, yet I see them as carriers of cultural knowledge embedded in the way landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture choreograph our relations with the environment. 

My background in water management taught me to think in terms of efficiency, control, and resistance. Through this project, I shift toward understanding water as cultural, relational, and spiritual. A defining moment occurred during interviews in Bangkok: while I was researching relationships between residents and the canals, people instead shared the story of Mae Phra Khanong, a spiritual wetland that remains porous and culturally alive despite modern water strategies. This revealed how deep-rooted communal belief can be stronger than institutional planning. 


Graduation date: 3 November 2025
Graduation committee: Mirte van Laarhoven (mentor), Rens Wijnakker, Lada Hršak 
Additional members for the exam: Roel Wolters, Ziega van den Berk