In December 1999, seventy designers and artists from around the world embarked on a journey up the Chao Phraya River, creating a new kind of city—one that came alive only at night, dissolved by morning, and was reborn with each stop. This was City of Water: Bangkok Water Exploration 1999, a groundbreaking project organized by the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, in collaboration with Nokia (Thailand) and art4d.

City of Water was never just about architecture. It was about the collective act of creating space, navigating cultural collisions, and embracing the unpredictable. It captured a rare moment where imagination, improvisation, and the physical environment merged into a fluid, ever-changing narrative. What emerged is more than a record of events—it is a meditation on community, ephemerality, and the potential of architecture as a living, moving experience.

Guest edited by Rachaporn Choochuey and released by art4d in April 2000; this special publication brings together a selection of writings and reflections from the project. It features theoretical explorations of architecture in motion, travel diaries, documentation of the experiments, and a special interview with Ettore Sottsass.