The New Malls of Bangkok

Nevertheless, the Commons is green, its grass is real. Such places are sorely needed in Bangkok. Public planners in the city have not prioritised parks and historically, private developers have built malls to shelter people from the outdoors, not to embrace it: the temperatures in Bangkok can be stifling, and the weather thunderous. You can easily spend a day moving from one shopping centre to the next, breathing nothing but conditioned air.

Small, green and open-air: inside Bangkok’s new ‘community malls’