Underground Public Facility: Air pollution adaptation design approach due to the haze season, an opportunity for the development of a new public transportation plan in Chiang Mai, Thailand BY CHANON PUDDHANON, MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE THESIS

According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is one of the leading causes of death. This is a problem that the people of Chiang Mai (Thailand) have had to face for more than ten years. It can be considered a major part of life and, in the future, this will shorten the lifespan of all people that live in this city. Because the cause of this problem is quite different from many areas that have encountered the same issue. Both in terms of geography, weather characteristics, and the location of the city. In general, there are three main design approaches to tackle the problem: protect, solve and adapt. To achieve the most effective results, each method is used to respond to the problem in different ways.

Chiang Mai is located in the northern part of Thailand. It is regarded as one of the country's important cities in terms of its unique culture, long history, attractive natural scenery, and tourism business. And recently, the city's government agency has announced the plan to develop the city's light rail public transportation system (TRAM). This project is a large-scale city development that will result in a change in the way people live in the city. It contributes to a higher quality of life while also promoting the efficiency of the tourism industry, which is one of the province's main sources of revenue. This development plan can be considered as a great opportunity to find design solutions to the air pollution problem, which is a major impediment that should not be overlooked.

For this thesis, we will study how to deal with this problem. As we know, the air pollution problem is the biggest obstacle that has a substantial impact on the quality of life for people in Chiang Mai. According to the city's new public transportation development plan. This will focus on designing for coexistence with problems. By studying and designing underground functional areas to expand public space for city users and tourists will be able to avoid facing air pollution during the haze season in Chiang Mai. And, as a designer, the conclusion of this thesis is to demonstrate one of the approaches to dealing with the inevitable problems by taking advantage of the opportunity to build a new city infrastructure in order to maximize development efficiency.

Keywords: Underground Public Space, Chiang Mai New Public Transportation, Air Pollution, Chiang Mai Haze Season, Problem Tackle Design Approach