Field-0 [Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan] is collaborating with the Karen Indigenous community living in the Vajiralongkorn Dam Reservoir in western Thailand, whose ancestral forest lands were submerged following the dam’s construction in the 1980s. Today, many displaced villagers live on floating rafts above their flooded homes, their lives rising and falling with the dam’s cyclical water releases. Though surrounded by water, they remain without access to safe drinking water.

Working with the Pilok Pho Village Nursery, we will design and install a rainwater harvesting and filtration system that will deliver safe drinking water for indigenous children and serve as a shared resource for the wider village. This work is guided and supported by the local Forest Tradition temple, a deeply respected guardian of the community.

As a first step, we are repairing the nursery’s existing rainwater system before the next rainy season in April 2026—an urgent and pragmatic intervention that lays the foundation for long-term water security. Thanks to £900 raised by January 2026, we are now able to purchase and install a 1,000-litre stainless steel water tank, a water filtration unit, a pump, and a new gutter section, just in time for the upcoming rainy season in April.

This progress has only been possible because of the extraordinary generosity and collaboration of the local community. We are deeply grateful to our Thai collaborators PuPla TriKaewprasert, the abbot of the floating temple within the reservoir, and the villagers themselves, who have helped purchase, transport, and install the system. This project is not just infrastructure—it is a shared effort rooted in trust, care, and mutual support.

Looking ahead, we are entering the next phase of the project. We aim to fully upgrade the nursery’s rainwater harvesting and filtration system, hopefully in 2027, creating a reliable and sustainable source of clean water for years to come.

If you wish to stand in solidarity with this Indigenous community, we invite you to support the development of this vital infrastructure. Every contribution—large or small—helps turn rain into safe drinking water and care into lasting change. All support is received with deep gratitude.

You can visit the project webpage for more information:

https://field-0.xyz/reservoir-project

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About field-0

Field-0 trials situated, sensorial approaches to dissecting planetary interconnectedness, while grounding their work in communities. Field practice, for them, is relation-oriented: drawing out relations, entering into them with care, and driving change towards repair and reciprocity.

Initiated by Jingru (Cyan) Cheng and Chen Zhan, field-0 operates at the intersection of architecture, anthropology, art, and filmmaking. Cyan was awarded the Harvard GSD’ 2023 Wheelwright Prize and currently teaches at the Royal College of Art in London. Chen is a UK-registered architect, independent filmmaker and anthropologist.