The Unusual Football Field: useful space and an evidence gap

Read the campaign story

Property advertising usually presents ideal buildings in generous surroundings. AP Thailand’s Unusual Football Field worked with the opposite condition: awkward leftover space in a dense Bangkok neighbourhood. The concept adapted play areas to irregular plots rather than insisting that every football pitch must be rectangular. The editorial opportunity is to demonstrate spatial ingenuity in a setting where that skill matters. The case also shows why an attractive visual story must be checked against what was actually built.

The 2016 project involved AP Thailand and CJ Worx in Khlong Toei. A reporter visiting the area described children using an irregularly shaped completed field. However, Khaosod English reported on 9 October that only one of the five areas depicted in the promotional video was finished, with the others appearing to be visualisations. An ABC report four days later described four completed pitches using supplied material. These accounts do not support a single confidently verified completion total.

A promotional film and images circulated through news and design coverage, making unusual aerial shapes central to the story. The completed local play space and the wider communications therefore need to be distinguished. This study records the existence of an observed installation and the campaign’s presentation of a broader project, while leaving the disputed scale unresolved. It does not assume that all areas seen in the video were available to residents when the film was released.

The design mechanism is strong even without inflated scale: a constrained site becomes the demonstration of a property developer’s problem-solving ability. Yet useful design is not established by visual novelty alone. Access, drainage, maintenance, resident consent and the quality of play all matter. Those are editorial evaluation criteria, not claims that the campaign met every criterion. A striking image can simplify a complicated neighbourhood, especially when outsiders describe it only through deprivation or a need for corporate rescue.

The practical lesson is as much about evidence discipline as creativity. A public-benefit campaign needs labels for prototypes, renderings, completed work and future plans. Independent observation can prevent a persuasive case film from becoming the only account of reality. The opened reports establish the concept and at least one built field, but not long-term community outcomes or incremental property sales. A smaller team should learn to document a modest working improvement honestly before turning its potential expansion into a polished promotional promise.

Label the status of every image

Mark renderings and proposed sites visibly rather than allowing them to look completed.

Verify the public benefit

Check usability and maintenance with residents before celebrating the design.

Resolve conflicting counts

Publish only the scale supported by dated evidence and explain unresolved discrepancies.

A small test for another brief

Document one authorised improvement to a shared non-public workspace.

Measure use and practical complaints rather than image impressions.

Stop if permission, accessibility or maintenance responsibility is unclear.

• Ask its users which small spatial inconvenience matters.
• Prototype a reversible layout with permission and record what is actually installed.
• Gather feedback before considering a public case film.