"Am I making a mistake?"
You see, my thesis topic is "Water, Society and Culture". What I am trying to do is finding a relationship between water and culture from various aspects and insert them into architecture from various aspects. This includes design approach, programs and so on....
The reason this topic got me interested was from my visit to North Eastern of Thailand. I'd seen water space not being used to full potential. I've heard of the link between water and Thai Culture, but the sense of water space in that city did not really convince me. So I urged to find out on that question. During the city walk conversation, ajarns told me that this could be a topic for your thesis.. Well, I agreed. But this is not the first one came to mind.
So after months of consideration, I decided to go for this topic. But halfway through the thesis prep class, I may have realized I've made a mistake:
Because I was such a "CITY" girl, I found that linking local culture and beliefs of people outside of my city are difficult. I felt like I've been stepping out of my comfort zone and I'm halfway through already. Therefore, there is no turning back.
What I found it really hard is the question of why? why are you doing this and that? what makes this city so special with water and so on. These are the questions that I must convince committees and prove what I am trying to propose is possible.
For days, I've been searching through various relationship between water and culture. Here is my conclusion from what I found, in words:
Nan city and water relationship,
- From the city scale, Nan city had been through various developments. The one thing that remains firm to the city is the way it was structured. The city was planned according to Cosmic Landscape methodology, with temples as center and so on. Water streams running through the gate represents 4 continents. However, because the city is situated near the hills, there's no constructed pond for irrigation. In addition, like many Thai city in the past, the current road lines were canals.
- As for Land use, well, the city's structure changes a bit. But there are resemblances in some point. Like riverfront space is still a space for public usage.
- The architectural symbols are significant in aesthetics of symbols such as Naga, ตุง. The reference of Naga is all over the place of the city, from the street signs to boat decoration. Nagas on temple stairways are also the most significant of all parts of Thailand.
- In architectural construction, wooden architecture is firmly constructed in Lanna traditional house. With lightweight structure, Thai traditional house is able to withstand flooding.
- As for water-related activities, the obvious one is long-boat. Nan long boat is the most significant in aesthetics and decoration, whose main characteristics are slenderness and Naga decoration along the boat. In addition, the hint of water is indicated in namings of Nan performance. The examples include "ซอล่องน่าน" and "ฟ้อนล่องน่าน". As posture of traditional Thai performance being an indication of life on the river, it is only suitable that my project would include traditional thai music and performance as part of building programs.
- For water-based beliefs, it was believed that the origins of Nan generation was born from Naga.
- From this research,
Therefore, from this reason, I choose Naga as beliefs for the approach of my project. What I do was linking water-inspired activities.
My proposal is linking my project with existing park to make a complete promenade that reflect the culture of Nan city through space and program.
I don't feel stressful anymore, so off to work.
wish me luck.
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