Get to Know the Creative Districts Ahead of BKKDW2024: Pak Khlong Talat

Creating new experiences to elevate commerce at Thailand’s largest flower market through design.

Previously, someone might visit Pak Khlong Talat on special occasions throughout the year, whether Valentine’s Day to shop for a large bouquet of red roses for their partner or when buying banana leaves, incense sticks, and flowers for crafting krathong or Teacher’s Day floral offerings. Back then, nobody could have imagined that Pak Khlong Talat would become a popular dating spot: bustling with young couples holding bouquets of flowers, densely packed on the Buddhayodfa Chulalok Maharat Bridge, and shooting TikTok videos.

In the midst of these major and interesting changes, Asst. Prof. Supitcha Tovivich or “Ajarn Nong” from the Faculty of Architecture, Silpakorn University, as the district’s Co-Host of Bangkok Design Week 2024 and someone who has been intimately involved with the neighborhood for over 8 years, shared her insights on the challenges, opportunities, and future of Pak Khlong Talat. Let’s search for these answers together.

When Thailand’s Largest Flower Market is Disrupted by Technology

Pak Khlong Talat, once the greatest wholesale flower market in Thailand, is has undergone several transformations throughout its history. The most significant change came in 2016 with the reorganization of the space encroaching on sidewalks. This affected vendors at Pak Khlong Talat who used to set up their stalls on the sidewalks and could no longer do so. The market, once vibrant and dazzling with flowers spilling out onto almost the entire Chakkraphet Road, had to transform into an enclosed market by moving almost all its shops inside.

This change coincided with the time Ajarn Nong and her team started working in the area. It was then that we began to see new approaches and creative ideas brought in to reinvigorate the area, which had become somewhat stagnant.

Today, Pak Khlong Talat has once again been impacted by online purchases and new wholesale channels.

“With an ever-evolving society, if you continue to do business in the same, old, wholesale manner, it’s uncertain whether it will remain viable due to technological disruptions, the fact that, nowadays, there are markets in every corner of the city, or that local needs are being met regionally. There might not be as much demand for wholesale florists as before. But is it still substantial? Absolutely. However, just by observing, you can feel that if things continue this way, business as usual, it’s uncertain whether the market can remain viable for another 10 or 20 years.

“Many major merchants agree that, soon, buying flowers will become much easier. For example, some shops will order flowers, and others can just piggyback on their shipping. They will be able to order flowers from the same shop in China as the big shops at a price that is not much higher. It becomes much more affordable, with more options to make smaller purchases. So, opening a flower shop in the future is going to be very easy.’

From ‘Viral’ to Sustainable Transformation

It was a stroke of luck for Pak Khlong Talat that the changes in the area coincided with the disruption caused by online sales channels, presenting a new opportunity that would become another important branding element for the area, namely the adolescent culture of buying flowers and taking photos at the Buddhayodfa Chulalok Maharat Bridge.

“Suddenly, it became a natural viral sensation. It wasn’t a fluke. Teenagers buying flowers and taking pictures at the bridge was already happening before Bangkok Design Week, but not in large numbers. However, as events became more frequent, other teenagers started coming and taking pictures. More and more people followed, turning this place into a popular tourist spot among the youth.”

To outsiders, this trend might seem fleeting and superficial, but Ajarn Nong said that for her and locals, it represents a significant new opportunity that has a profound impact on the area’s adaptive strategies moving forward.

“At first, there was a feeling that when younger generations visited, they came in large numbers but didn’t buy much. We wondered if there would be any real benefit. But after a while, as it started happening organically and consistently, what some thought was silly — taking pictures — wasn’t trivial at all. From February to November 2023, there were still a lot of teenagers. Previously, they just bought flowers and took pictures. Now they’re beginning to frequent and support the cafes in the area. What’s interesting is what a major shop owner said about the short-term perspective. He noticed that teenagers spend 60 to 100 baht. But by focusing on weekend sales and catering specifically to teenagers, they made over 50,000 baht. And that’s just from selling small bouquets of about 60 to 100 baht. So in the short term, it’s not bad at all.

“What’s more interesting is that the flowers teenagers buy are usually a bit more in bloom. If it were up to the older generation, they might prefer their flowers to blossom at home. However, the teenagers want them already in bloom, which is usually not the best choice for big shops, since they’re considered old. However, it perfectly meets the teenagers’ needs: beautiful, ready for photos, and still good for another couple of days at home. It turned out to be a solution to a pain point. The teenagers want them this way, and normally, these flowers would be sold at a discount, so they’re sold cheaply and in large quantities.”

Developing New Markets by Offering Memorable Experiences 

As the consumer behaviors and relationships of visitors began to change, Ajarn Nong explained that an important lesson learned by local merchants from this situation was the concept of ‘experience design.’

“In the past, Pak Khlong Talat thrived without having to think about creating experiences. But now, if you go there, the atmosphere has changed significantly. The surly mom-and-pops are certainly still there, naturally, but they’ve become much more hospitable. Where they previously focused mainly on wholesale customers, now they’ll cheerfully call out to youngsters standing at their storefront, ‘Hello there, youngster, choose any flowers you like, I’ll arrange them for you.’ This sort of interaction never happened before.

“As we kept experimenting, we discovered that the younger generation doesn’t want to buy flowers in large quantities to arrange at home. That’s not their nature. That’s the nature of the older generation, who might like to buy a lot and arrange them at home, posting pictures on Facebook. That’s the 40-and-up demographic. On the other hand, the younger generation wants to create experiences with the place. They want to spend time here, so we need to design experiences that meet their needs.

“Now, we’re starting to see people who are the children or grandchildren of the owners of traditional flower shops in the area decide to evolve the family brand. They’re opening shops where customers can pick out their flowers. This addresses the pain point of youths who don’t want to buy in bulk like wholesale, but prefer buying single flowers to arrange their own bouquets.

Following the focus on experience comes the aspect of creating an identity. Ajarn Nong said that the people of Pak Khlong Talat are also striving to push this aspect at the same time.

“Some merchants want to create a new image for the market and for themselves, making it appear more open. They want to be seen as a group of people and a neighborhood ready to collaborate and cooperate with new groups of people and new opportunities.

“They think like businesspeople. They don’t know for sure what direct benefits they will get from these collaborations, but they see them as new opportunities. So, they thought, ‘Let’s try to find a modern identity for Pak Khlong Talat together.’ That’s why we’ve held various activities, including projection mapping, photo exhibitions, flower installations, and workshops. We are trying to experiment with many things, figuring out what can be done right now and what should be planned for the future.”

I Flower You: Expressing Emotions with Flowers

For this year’s Bangkok Design Week in Pak Khlong Talat, Ajarn Nong explained that the intent is to shift from the previous year’s focus on attracting people to the area through various means, creating more meaningful relationships between people and flowers.

“The central theme, ‘I flower you,’ is to say, ‘I love you,’ ‘I like you,’ ‘I miss you,’ but with flowers. It’s about choosing a flower at Pak Khlong Talat to express these sentiments. We want to start with the meanings that are the most associated with flowers. Last time, the theme was Pop-Up, as in ‘Pop it up.’ We wanted to bring in a lot of people lights and colors. But this year, we want to make it a bit more meaningful. We’re trying to get people to think about how they feel about that flower, or what feelings that flower evokes, and whether they want to give this flower to themselves or to someone else. We want to talk about the emotions people have with flowers and to go a bit deeper. We expect that this will lead to buying flowers with more meaning, not just buying to take beautiful pictures (though if anyone wants to take pictures with flowers, that’s fine too, as you will be supporting the vendors).

“For the ‘I flower you’ theme at this year’s Bangkok Design Week in Pak Khlong Talat, there will be a section for photo exhibition involving two photographers. One is a recent graduate, Nui, who will explore how people use flowers to express their feelings. Nui intends to delve into the places where flowers are grown. The second is Kop Kap, a talent from Pak Khlong Talat whose work was also showcased last year. The task for Kop Kap is to capture how people in Pak Khlong Talat buy flowers under the ‘I flower you’ theme. I’m personally excited to see what Kop Kap will bring to the table.

“There will also be an interactive component, the specifics of which are still unknown, but the same team, 27JUNE Studio, will be involved, and it’s expected to be delightful. Additionally, there will be workshops, including the ‘How are you doing?’ workshop at the Sunflower shop. They have come up with the theme, ‘How are you feeling today?’ that uses flowers to express daily emotions. There will also be a discussion on the topic of flower waste, a challenging issue since flower waste is difficult to repurpose. This year, while not scaled up significantly, there are new ideas from the younger generation, like turning flowers into paper and then using that paper to wrap flowers again. The issue of flower waste is complex and requires gradual progress.”

What flower would you use to express your feelings? Come and choose your flowers at Bangkok Design Week 2024 in the Pak Khlong Talat area.

Explore Pak Khlong Talat in greater detail through the neighborhood’s recommended programs:

I Flower You: Street Photo Exhibition

www.bangkokdesignweek.com/bkkdw2024/program/67998 

I Flower You: Pak Khlong Collective Blooms

www.bangkokdesignweek.com/bkkdw2024/program/67976 

How are you doing?

www.bangkokdesignweek.com/bkkdw2024/program/69296 

Click to view all programs of Pak Khlong Talat District here:

www.bangkokdesignweek.com/bkkdw2024/program?nbh=50632 

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Bangkok Design Week 2024

Livable Scape

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27 Jan – 4 Feb 2024

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