The Philosophy influence in Traditional Thai Architectural Character
Natural Setting:
1. Inclined Stilt structures
In general, people settled in fertile river basins that provided sufficient water for farming. That made it necessary for people to build houses on high stilts on high ground to stay above the water during floods.
2. Ventilation
Traditional Thai houses are well known for their ventilation, thanks to the elevation of the floors from the ground. More importantly, Thai houses are designed to ensure both horizontal and vertical ventilation flows.
3. Positioning of the house The positioning of the house and roofing play a key part in heat reduction.
4. Open-decked platform or Chan Ruen
Occupants need an open –decked space to sun-dry things during the wet season .
5. Height The size and height of Thai traditional houses are related to the occupants’ physical traits. Thai houses are designed to allow occupants to complete all activities without the need to go down to the ground.
6. Treasure pillar In the past, house owners hid their money and valuables in unconventional places, rather than cabinets and coffers. It was common that they discreetly holed one of the house’s large pillars, making it a secret chamber.
7. Raft house
Thai houses in the central region were located on flood plains. Therefore, it was necessary that the houses were designed to enable oc cupants to continue a normal life In houses during floods.
Concrete concept in Thai architecture 1. The grouping of buildings a.
Detached buildings with open-air walkways
This type of detached buildings with open-air walkways conforms with traditional landscape.
b. Walkways with roof Roofed walkways provide protection from rain and sunlight
c.
Connecting with terrace (chaan)
Terrace is normally connected with a ve randah(rabiang or palai) and an interior area of the house.
2. Primary elements a. Roof form
Roof, with distinctive characteristics, is the most unique part of Thai architecture.
b. Roof characteristics
The roof that has added or dented layers can be found mostly in religious buildings such as temple, bot, and viharn. This is the technique applied by craftsmen to create the sense of lightness and to reduce bulky look of the roof.
c.
The extended part of the roof
Fully extended part- such feature, which is found in traditional architecture, is suitable for buildings during wet season. Slightly extended part- can be found mostly in r eligious buildings like bot and viharn in the Sukhothai period.
d. Roof materials -Earthernware ceramic tiles -teak shingles or paen kled mai sak
e. roof colour -red -brown -green
f.
Slope of roof
-some traditional Thai buildings have steep roofs of more than 45 degree s.
G. High pillars or stilts -regular rain-induces floods during the wet season and surging seawater in November and December make it nece ssary for people in the central plains to live on high stilts
3. secondary elements a.
walls or panang it can be made of stone or brick.
b. Windows and air vents -Ban krathung It is a type of glass window that is well conserved and still used in present days.
-Ban perd The pattern and size of the window depends on the climate in each region.
-Ban Fiam This form consists of a series of folded window panels used to divide the rooms. Most of them are made o f teak wood.
c.
Size and location of open-air vents
Steep, fixed glass or vents are small, each equal to the w idth of a brick, and vertically placed higher on the wall.
d. Verandah grills Verandah grills are called luk tang indue to their vertically placed position. It is a part of verandahs or stairs known as Bang Khan.
e. Floor motifs Resembles a jagged angle on rectangular-shaped pillars like the 12- or 20angled pillars
f.
Floor materials Terra cotta floor tile is called krabueng na wua. Plank floors are commonly found in classic Thai wooden houses since timber was the still plentiful.
Appearance of Thai Architecture Residence 1. The Siamese Wooden House The classic wooden house of central Thailand has a distinctive elegance. It has a concave roof, arching bargeboards with hooked lower finials, and trapezoidal walls. These slopes and curving lines keep it from looking boxy.
2. The Northern House
Represents the distinctive culture of Lanna Kingdom, which flourished between the 13
th
th
and the 18 centuries.the largest and most refined type of Lanna residence is the classic kalae house, named for the V- or X-shaped wooden decoration extending from the gable and peaks, thought to represent the horns of water buffalo.
3.
North-Eastern house
Similar to central Thai houses. They are built of wood on stilts, but their roofs feature a gentler slope since there is less rain to cope with.
4. The Southern House
Malay style, with its roots in Islamic art, is expressed in carved ornamental details: gable end panels, roof finials and the fretwork of ventilation grilles often painted in many colours.
5. Houses on Water
These houses are comfortable and well suited to commerce, given the ease of water transport.
6. Bamboo Houses
The structural characteristics of Thai bamboo house are very similar to the wooden ones: one-storey, raised on stilts, a gable roof and prefabricated walls.
7. Rice Barns
In rural areas, most house have a r ice barn or granary(yung khao), built to protect the produce from spoilage and vermin.
8. Field Huts and Cottages
When farmers live several kilometers from their rice fields, they need to build huts and cottages(hang na) for shelter.
9. Roadside Shops, Stalls, and Pavilions
Today, roads throughout Thailand, even deep in the countryside, are lined w ith wooden stalls and shop houses selling local products, handmade items and packaged goods.
Architectural elements: 1.Roof forms
-Roofs are the quintessential elements in Thai public architecture, shaping the character of the buildings with their elaborate structure and decoration. The ornamented multi-tier roofs are, however, reserved for temples and palaces as well as public buildings such as government offices, university halls and monuments.
2.Forms of roof spires Roof spires designate buildings of the highest status, especially royal palace halls. Indeed, the term for a roof spire, yod prasat, means ’spire of a palace’ .
3.Roof finials Every roof edge apex has stylized at tachments that especially transform the structure into a huge piece of sculpture while hinting at mystical concepts.
4.Pediments The large triangular section at the end of a gable roof, the pediment is the most prominent exterior element of a Thai public building. Standing high over the entrance, it inevitably becomes the most decorated part of the palace and temple buildings, where it is called naa ban.
5.Eave Brackets Eave Brackets (khan thuai) are among the most inventively carved wooden elements in Thai temple architecture, and their design is a good index of a building’s vintage and stylistic heritage.
6.Doors and windows
In palace and temple architecture, the heightened status of the interior space is suggested by the elaborate decoration of doors(pratoo), windows(naatang), air vents and eave brackets(khan thuai). Doors and windows of temple and royal structures have a larger surface area for the embellishment, compared to t hat of houses. The embellishment also helps shed more light on the objects and the ceremonies that take place inside the buildings.
7.Bases While roofs get special treatments in Thai architecture, bases or than, too, receive an aesthetic attention.
8.Columns The massive, multi-tiered roofs of palace and temple buildings are supported by columns(sao) of timber of bricks. Columns can be round, or, if square, can have single, double, or curves redentings. Decoration may come in a variety of lotus motifs.
9.Interior Space Entering a viharn or ubosot can be a dramatic transition. From a white-walled courtyard, broad and bright, one enters a dim, hushed enclosure.
10. Ceilings Since the Sukhothai period, the ceilings of the temples’ ordination halls and assembly halls have been decorated with lotus motifs.
11. Mural painting Mural paintings enliven the walls of assembly and ordination halls not as decorations but as visual texts designed for spiritual instruction. Murals were used to illustrate the teachings of Buddha because they were easy to understand and remember.
12. Interior Statuary One of the important roles of any w at is to enshire Buddha images for veneration. The ornate decoration of a biharn building is intended to create a palace-like setting appropriate for these statues.
13.Courtyards Temple compounds are encolosed within walls that form layers of co urtyards. They filled a variety of key religious structures, statuary and ce remonial sites.
14.Courtyard Walls and Gates in Temples Different layers of walls around the temple compounds designate the grounds as sacred. Gates, as thresholds between different spaces, are perceived to protect against the entry of evil spirits.
15.Courtyard Walls and Gated in the Grand Palace Walls and gates around buildings in the grand palace demarcate grounds of the highest status, from the fortified outer walls around the Central Court and Inner court zones, where only the king and his children often have specific cer emonial designations in which many are individually named.
16.Courtyard Statuary Most of the statues in temple courtyar ds are guardian figures of Hindu or Chinese origin.
17.Gardens Courtyard landscaping shows a distinctively Thai amalgam of influences from Europe, Japan and China.
18.Thai Bonsai and Stone Mountains Bonsai was taken up by monks for use in temple Gardens. Stone mountains or khao more are formed by piling or ceme nting rocks together to represent Mount Meru.
