Bangkok's micro homes a model for slum upgrade

Small homes, funded by a charity and designed by a leading architect, have helped residents brave a surge of the coronavirus pandemic in the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok, Thailand. [Reuters]

Flimsy shacks of tin and ply have given way to sleek, painted houses - small, clean and leak-free - in Bangkok’s biggest slum, creating model homes and a blueprint for city development.

That is if community leader Surawat Krabsomboon and other residents can defeat plans to bulldoze much of Klong Toey slum and make way for the sort of gentrification transforming the Thai capital.