"Cultivating the Home": A Study of 'Thai Dwelling Place' with reference to Domestic Interior from the First National Development Plan (1961-6) to the Present, A Case Study of Bangkok
1 The research intends to focus on the home in contemporary Thai cultural context; in the here and now; on the urban rather than the rural; and on the mass society rather than small communities. It intends to make the concept of 'baan' in the contemporary Thai cultural context intelligible through the study of domestic interior: the transformation of the concept of 'baan'; on the ways we use and organise ourselves in domestic space in contemporary Thai society; and how contemporary domestic architectural design can contribute to the formation of the Thai home.
2 It is important that the research studies and resonates 'baan' as a dwelling, a lived space that it aims to provide an analysis of the use of such space and the experience of homelife. Rather than looking for the familiar in the exotic, the research intends to search for the exotic in the familiar. The proposed research is an attempt to understand how and why people in contemporary urbanised Thailand relate to things in their immediate environment in the formation of the home. Objects and things that are taken for granted, like entrance, door's threshold, exterior and interior decoration, and familiar activities like the installation of the principal column, and arranging a position of the bed and toilet, are looked at anew.
3 This research is an inquiry into the domestic architectural design, the use of domestic space and domestic homelife focusing primarily architectural evidence and the experiential aspects of such place. The investigation on the concept of 'baan' relies on the evidence that it is a place where Thais dwell: as a unit of the complex relationship implicated by a house, its construction, and people who inhabit it. The research uses Bangkok as an area for the investigation to unfold the complexity of contemporary Thai domestic architecture and its interior. The research is aware of the diversity of a 'place for living' for different lifestyles in Bangkok: a detached house, then a townhouse or semi-detached house, shop-house or commercial row-house, flat, apartment, and condominium depending on needs and income. Nonetheless, the research aims to explore such diversity but specific case studies will be selected for an in-depth analysis.
