Design and Building Culture: An Architectural approach from the Public Realm and its Experience in Thai Urbanism

Abstract

        This paper is an issue about building culture, particularly in urbanism. It seeks to identify reactions and responses of public to their built environment. It also aims to interrogate and to discuss about built environment in Thai urbanism in terms of building culture.

        There are three matters in this paper. The fi rst matter is a critical review in building culture and it related literature from a range of disciplines; including history, sociology, anthropology, economics, architecture and design. It is to illustrate the interrelationship between built environment and public realm. The second matter is a phenomenological observation in Thai urbanism by the author, a fl ight attendant who has been travelling to major cities in the world almost twenty years. Built environment in urban area of Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket are employed as an empirical evidences to comprehend the deductive approach of building culture. The third matter is the ways forward for changing built environment through building culture.