Moderated Influence: Globalisation and Thai Housing

Abstract

        This paper is the first in a series examining the development of new housing typologies at Ban Rai Kok, a rural village in northeastern Thailand. New patterns are emerging in rural villages at a time that the effects of globalisation are becoming apparent. I claim that these new housing patterns change the ways people live in this community and that this is further influenced by flows of global culture, specifically the rise of individualism, the introduction of industrialised building products and the introduction of global housing imagery. Thispaper demonstrates that this community incorporates select patterns into contemporary situations and these are most clearly evident in traditional houses that have been modified to incorporate a mediated inclusion of new patterns and technologies.