{"title":"Aesthetics of Power: Architecture, Modernity, and Identity from Siam to Thailand","authors":"Maurizio Peleggi","doi":"10.56261/jars.v10i1.12966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56261/jars.v10i1.12966","url":null,"abstract":"This is an ambitious and, on the whole,accomplished work that examines with both richnessof detail and conceptual sophistication the politicsof representation in the architecture and urbanspace of Siam/Thailand from the mid nineteenthcentury to the present. Based on a 2003 dissertationat the University of Colorado but updated to includeevents of the last decade, the book is informed bythe author’s knowledge of both architectural theoryand practice as well as of cultural theory andhistoriography. As such, The Aesthetics of Powerrepresents a significant improvement on a previousEnglish-language work with a similar timeframe,Clarence Aasen’s Architecture of Siam: A CulturalHistory (1998), and establishes Koompong Noobanjong’spre-eminence among a new generation ofhistorically-minded architectural historians, which alsoincludes Chatri Prakitnondhakarn, whose Kanmuanglae sangkhom nai silpa satthapatayakam sayamsamai thaiprayuk chatniyom (BE 2547 [2004]) overlapsboth thematically and chronologically with the bookunder review.","PeriodicalId":428713,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Architectural/Planning Research and Studies (JARS)","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131695952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
N. Usavagovitwong, Monthavee Jirawatthavee, Panayu Chairattananondha
{"title":"Making Informal Settlement Upgrading Plan to Action: A Comparative Analysis of Slow-Changing Community","authors":"N. Usavagovitwong, Monthavee Jirawatthavee, Panayu Chairattananondha","doi":"10.56261/jars.v10i1.12938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56261/jars.v10i1.12938","url":null,"abstract":"Informal settlement upgrading has always been a crucial element of urban planning and developmentmissions, particularly in a rapidly changing population and economic environments. Despite having beenassociated with planning process of national slum upgrading/prevention, it could hardly be accomplishedunless some threatening catalysts upon housing security are triggered. The researchers studied two suburbcommunities on the Crown Property Bureau’s lands: The Second Phuddhamonthon Road Community (SPC) and Wat Indrabanjong Community (WIC). Both are recognized as ‘slow-changing communities’. The research waschronologically conducted during 2009-2012 by abductive approach. Hence, the paper aims 1) to elucidate themechanism of planning platform and dialogues under a specific context to generate mutual consensus amongstakeholders; 2) to identify a series of neighborhood qualifications, limits, and potentials under a diverse livingambience that frequently impede actual changes; and 3) to extrapolate some mechanisms and conditions,bringing about a ‘critical point’, which ignites the settlement to a radical change. The key failure and successare 1) community leader and leadership, 2) the status of individual economic burdens, and 3) ad-hoc planningtactics.","PeriodicalId":428713,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Architectural/Planning Research and Studies (JARS)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131081883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Integration of Project-based Learning and Haptic Senses: A Case Study in Architectural Education","authors":"Koompong Noobanjong, Benjawan Ubonsri","doi":"10.56261/jars.v10i1.12965","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56261/jars.v10i1.12965","url":null,"abstract":"This research examines a mixed pedagogical approach that improves students’ learning capabilities in multidimensions, ranging from architectural knowledge and skills, collaborative ability, to communication proficiency with foreign peers. Based on their own initiatives and interests, students utilized their haptic senses--the characterization of formal and spatial perceptions obtained through bodily movements, touches, and other sensibilities--to develop and explore the selected objects and subjects of inquiries on architecture of central and northern Thailand via workshops and field trips, which become a basis for this study.\u0000Being an integration of a project-based and haptic way of learning, the upcoming investigations look into several phases of scholarly activities, including selections of the applicants, topic proposals, analyses and syntheses of case studies, presentations, as well as exhibition of students’ works. As for its methodological tools for data collection and interpretation, the research employs a combined quantitative and qualitative means--e.g., evaluative and observatory worksheets coupled with satisfactory questionnaires--to assess the academic performance, architectural skills, behavioral parameters of the participants, providing a ground to argue that: 1) the students had gained a higher body of knowledge and architectural skills via their haptic experiences with the built environment; and 2) such a project based-learning (PBL) had contributed to substantial improvements on the academic performance of the students.","PeriodicalId":428713,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Architectural/Planning Research and Studies (JARS)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130094689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Samoson Ratsaranrom (Khana Ratsadon’s Office): A Neglected Urban Heritage of the People’s Party","authors":"Koompong Noobanjong","doi":"10.56261/jars.v20i1.249697","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56261/jars.v20i1.249697","url":null,"abstract":"Current architectural scholarship in Thailand has witnessed a renewal of interest in built forms commissioned by the People’s Party, a group of civil servants and military officers known in Thai as Khana Ratsadon that overthrew the absolute monarchy in 1932. Despite an increasing number of publications on the arts and architecture of the People’s Party, its office in Bangkok remains largely absent from those investigations and public recognition. As such, this research presents a multidimensional inquiry to better understand the role of Samoson Ratsaranrom in Thai society. Once functioning as Khana Ratsadon’s office, the building was examined in terms of: (1) means for power mediation; (2) reflection of the ideological views of the People’s Party; and (3) expression of the modern Thai identity. Via discourse and iconographical analyses, the study revealed that apart from serving as a material manifestation of the revolutionary spirit and ideology, this modest structure acted as a social space for interactions between people through festivities, namely the annual constitutional fairs. Standing unassumingly in Saranrom Royal Garden–which has become a public park nowadays–the building was an integral part of the cultural practices during the early days of the post-absolutist regime. Owing to the said historical importance, a proposition could be put forward that not only should Khana Ratsadon’s office be incorporated into DOCOMOMO Thailand’s inventory, but also be registered as a national treasure by the Fine Arts Department. In addition, critical examination of this Modernist structure begged a question as to whether the academic obscurity of the building was indicative of attempts to erase the cultural legacies the People’s Party by the Thai state, which had been subtly implemented for decades. Regardless of the answer, recent destruction and disappearance of the cultural heritages left behind by the People’s Party make the preservation of Samoson Ratsaranrom even more urgent.","PeriodicalId":428713,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Architectural/Planning Research and Studies (JARS)","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121178611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modernism and the Gender Trouble: Techno-Utopia and Gender Politics in the 20th Century Design","authors":"Suriyaporn Eamvijit","doi":"10.56261/jars.v20i1.249560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56261/jars.v20i1.249560","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Among prominent figures in the architectural field of the twentieth century, Le Corbusier was undoubtedly the most renowned. His key writing Vers Une Architecture (Towards a New Architecture) was received with praise and has been regarded as the manifesto of modern and contemporary architecture ever since. His projects have become symbols of the end of the old regime and the possibility for a new democratic society. However, his revolutionary mission apparently diminishes gender issues. Although there is extensive research about Le Corbusier’s works, only a few investigated the gender aspects of his works or incorporated his artistic works into the analysis. Among several studies on politics of gender in modernist architecture, what is still lacking is the analysis of Le Corbusier’s works that are not architectural. This paper aims at examining the relationship between Le Corbusier’s architectural as well as his artistic works and gender politics through the lens of Henri Lefebvre’s spatial theory and feminist theories. The paper focuses on the modernist aesthetic, technology, and gender politics in spatial arrangements and designs, especially in the domestic sphere, that are discussed mainly in Le Corbusier’s Towards a New Architecture and his poetry collection Poem of the Right Angle. An analysis of spatial representations in both works reveals how the architect’s obsession with purist functionalism and the glorification of technology propagate the conventional concept of femininity and reduces female subjects to a unit of domestic labor. On the other hand, the paper contrasts the work of Le Corbusier with that of Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky to demonstrate how the very same aesthetics can be a design that favours women when it is appropriated by female professionals who think about equality both in terms of class and gender.\u0000\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":428713,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Architectural/Planning Research and Studies (JARS)","volume":"177 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115219640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Role of the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) in Managing the Abandoned Monasteries of Chiang Mai","authors":"Tanwutta Thaisuntad","doi":"10.56261/jars.v20i1.248344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.56261/jars.v20i1.248344","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000The objectives of the research are to study roles of the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) with respect to managing the abandoned monasteries of Chiang Mai, and specifically, 1) to identify unsustainable conditions that face abandoned monasteries, 2) to clarify unsustainable ways of thinking about abandoned monasteries , 3) to seek a rental management policy for abandoned monasteries , and 4) to seek management solutions for particular abandoned monasteries . Research problems are raised in relation to the lack of sacred fulfillment within the dead monument approach. Passive management in rental deeds without upgrading quality of life and community member interactions with the monuments indirectly lead to inappropriate conditions of some abandoned monasteries. I suggest that abandoned monasteries be thought of in terms of ‘religious heritages’ rather than ‘historic sites’ to provide multifaceted solutions to the management issues.\u0000There are 948 abandoned monasteries in Chiang Mai, only 8 of them are located in the city walled area. The abandoned monasteries within the old Chiang Mai city walled area, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand were physically examined. In addition to the site surveys of the abandoned monasteries, 33 in-depth interviews were conducted, with 12 interviews focusing on what I term the “official approach” (i.e. with government agencies and key higher education representatives) and 21 interviews focusing on what I term the “local approach” (i.e. with religious leaders and local community members). Secondary data analysis included a review of both Thai and English documents to identify the latest key thinking on management practices for abandoned monasteries. Literature sources analysis and case study analysis are also provided for 8 of the abandoned monasteries in the study area.\u0000Finally, 4 management keys (zoning management, public participation, sustaining of the sacred place condition, and local community ownership) were developed based on identified gaps in the NOB approach to managing abandoned monasteries. It can be concluded that the NOB approach to abandoned monastery deed management should consider 1) revising the ‘dead monument’ concept for hibernated sacred places that leads to unsustainable conditions, 2) the dilemma of the ‘sacred space’ that transitions to the ‘profitable space’ and represents unsustainable ways of thinking, 3) passive action of rental management is an outdated policy, and 4) results of the 4 management keys are supplemental solutions for the particular policy making and promoting sustainability of abandoned monasteries.\u0000\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":428713,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Architectural/Planning Research and Studies (JARS)","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117260730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}