Owing to the accelerated pace of modernization and urbanization, traditional Thai dwellings, or
ruan thai, and mode of living not only lose their multidimensionality, but also are dramatically displaced by modern housing and lifestyle. The premature, unsustainable, developments result in serious dwelling problems, particularly in and around the Bangkok Megalopolis. This research is a proxemic study of Thai dwellings in three evolution periods; the ″old,″ the ″transitional,″ and the ″old and new″ tradition. In order to understand how Thai dwellings respond to the ever-shifting contexts, the research focuses on the reexamination of the interrelationship between the broad, natural and cultural, context and the intimate, spatial, content and the reintegration between the horizontality and verticality of the
ruan thai′s lived space. The in-depth research selects eight
ruan thai located in the
Phrapradaeng District, Samutprakarn Province as the case studies. Methodologically, this research includes the socio-cultural and spatial analyses, while Hall′s PMS study is employed to explicate the contexts of the
ruan thai′s lived space. Through the analyses of spatial and sectional diagrams, the study reveals the spatial contents of
ruan thai as integral parts of the Thai ecological and cultural context.
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