태국 전통주거의 지역적 특성 고찰 -북부지역의 란나 전통주거를 중심으로-

Abstract

Housing-architecture has an important part of representing regional architectural culture. This paper aims to illustrate typology and characteristics of Thai traditional houses, particularly ‘Lanna’ style of the northern region. This paper begins with an explanation on general view of Thai traditional houses, and then describes architectural meanings and regional variations in Thai traditional house. In this paper, I try to explain several important points, including environment, cultural symbol, space separation, shape(or style) and types of Thai traditional house, especially focusing on ‘Lanna’ traditional house in Northern Thai area. Generally, a traditional house in Thailand is considered of smaller rectangular unit(s), varying in size and number from one house to another depending on family size, functional requirement, and the class or financial status. Houses in Lanna’s rural area were unique and differed according to environmental condition, climate, landscape, social customs, ways of life, and regional traditional belief. They are built to suit these factors. Aesthetic needs are also considered Houses here have been designed and built with locally made materials by skilful architectural craftman. The materials used were easily found, for example, bamboo and dried leaves. The building structure, layout plan and community plan were all similar. On the other hand, houses of wealthy people in urban areas included wooden houses and kalae houses. The construction followed the traditional trend, which was more elaborate and formal than rural houses. There are some different types of dwelling responding to the various purpose they are to serve, in Northern Thai area. Despite the highly hierarchical nature of the traditional Thai society, the only differences among the houses of those in varying socio-economic classes were only in terms of sizes, numbers of pavilions, degrees of refinement and details, and quality of construction materials. Nowadays, these traditional ‘Lanna’ architectural features are still remained and developing to adapt the use of new construction material and new technology, which create new ‘Lanna’ architectural style following the period.