Publication of part one.

Informalism has published Part One of working with the informal, learning from the informal online. The publication details the work and research undertaken with CASE Studio in 2007.

As well as covering some territory familiar to readers of this blog the publication also includes much of material which never made it onto the blog, including the end of the On Another People's Land project and a review of some of CASE's past projects as well as an attempt to capture some of their methods and philosophies.

Working with the Informal, Learning from the Informal: CASE Studio


Informalism: CASE studio.

บ้านแฮด Baan Haet

Continuing our journey into the Isan, we continued north to the district of Baan Haet in the province of Khon Kaen and visited the community of นิคมโนนสมบูรณ.


The community was founded in 2507 (1964), when 460 hectares of crown treasury land was set aside for people suffering from leprosy to live together and try to heal themselves. To begin with there were very strict rules, no-one was allowed to marry or have children. Human nature being what it is however, people did have children and the population has swelled to 3,111. As leprosy has now been eradicated only 1 in 4 of the people in นิคมโนนสมบูรณ have ever suffered from the disease. the hospitals and 'group houses' have been emptied and the villages appear much like any other in the area.

ผุใหญ่สุภาพเลพล, the village head, explains the situation to the CASE team

By regaining their heath, however, the people now face the possibility that the crown treasury department may take back their land. It was this concern that brought the community to CODI to join the Baan Man Kong Chonabot project and to begin negotiating for a long term lease of the land.

พ่อหอมดี (Papa Good Smell), the person who originally contacted CODI, shows us his land. He is able to grow enough rice to feed his family all year round and has space left over to grow vegetables and raise fish and cattle.

วังนำ้เขียว Wang Naam Khio

Moving up to the mountains of Wang Naam Khio, in Nakhon Ratchasima province, we reached the cool air and green hills of นิคมเศรษฐกิจพอเพียง (settlement for self sufficient economy) .


Like นิคมปลูกหน่อไม้ฝรั่งอินทรีย์ in Wang Sombun, นิคมเศรษฐกิจพอเพียง is a 'start up' community which began from a survey by the municipal government to identify impoverished families without land for livelyhood. The municipality contacted สปก (so-pa-kaw), an organisation which supports agricultural development, to set up a project for the people. In 2545 (2002) สปก purchased land for the project (around 4000 sqm per family) and began to train the members. The project was set up to grow gradually, with members joining in groups of 50 each year (so far 3 generations have joined). In 2548 (2005) a delegation from the new community approached CODI and was invited to join the Baan Man Kong Chonabot project.

พี่อำไพ, from the first generation to join the community and head of the commitee which approached CODI, explained to us the history of the settlement and the many works which the community is currently undertaking.

The community have set up 3 livelyhood study groups, one experimenting with growing vegetables, one focusing on raising animals, and one attempting to develop tourism. Particularly interesting is the tourism group's plan to tap into the growing trend of health tourism: 'Come to Wang Naam Khio, ride bicycles in the cool mountain air and eat fresh vegetables, its good for you!'.

The vegetable group has been trialing various crops as well as systems of irrigation and composting.

พี่อัคคี (centre page), from the second generation and head of the tourism study group runs a group of guest houses for those looking for healthier holidays.

The tourism group also runs a kind of open air conference centre. CODI held a conference here for the members of Baan Man Kong Chonabot to exchange ideas and experiences.

The community have also started various other support projects, including a community shop, a micro finance group and a small workshop producing bricks for use in building houses. The brick making technology was developed by Kasetsart University.

The brick making workshop

Some problems have occured with the 'generation' system of adding members in groups each year, members from different generations have tended to stick together and not trust one another. There have been complaints from later generations of nepotism and a lack of transparency from the initial generation.

There is conflict within the community between different generations of settlers.

The community are now looking to move on from livelyhood projects and begin building houses and moving in permanently.

Some families have already established themselves permanently on the land.