Cultural values and living spaces : the exploration of an appropriate housing for Thai families in a contemporary society

This creative project is a study of cultural awareness in architecture. The hypothesis states that architecture is one of many cultural manifestations in a society. One seeking contemporary architecture in a society should explore the idea of contemporary culture in that society. This study aims to point out the relationship of living patterns and living spaces (culture and architecture). Living patterns are influenced by their own cultures and, at the same time, the characteristics of living spaces reflect the aspects of living patterns. To explore contemporary living spaces, cultural issues must be considered.However, culture is dynamic. It is changed by reasons of time, place and people. Even though the tradional cultures in a society continuingly permeate to the next generations, some of them disappear as time, place or people change. Therefore, to study the issue of culture in contemporary society, traditional and new cultures are reckoned with as contemporary families adapt both cultures into their lifestyles.While Thai society has maintained its own unique culture, recently globalization has brought influences of Western ideas into Thailand. These influences are effecting Thai culture and bearing on how housing responds to a changing society.The work is divided into two parts, research and design. To explore the deeper meaning of contemporary living spaces, the research focuses on the importannce of culture to the characteristics of living spaces. It analyzes cultural and social changes that have influenced contemporary Thai families. This cultural analyses confirms that the meaning and design of contemporary living spaces are directly influenced by cultural adjustments.To support the hypothesis and research, a housing project for contemporary Thai families is proposed. It is a schematic design that incorporates the cultural analyses into the design process. The design is a model for organizing cultural information into the design of living spaces.Department of ArchitectureThesis (M. Arch.