The first home: a pedagogical exploration of architecture’s mythical origins

Abstract

This thesis proposes an alternative pedagogical model for foundational architectural design studios in Thailand. It seeks to shift early design education away from rote technical skill acquisition and the metaphor-based approaches prevalent in university admission examinations, advocating instead for an ontological exploration of the discipline's mythical origins, conceptualised through the "primitive hut." This is a model to construct social, cultural and architectural aspects of architectural design studio briefs, and establishes the content for paralleled lecture courses in histories and theories of architecture, leading to the exercise upon complex living conditions, the programming of shophouses and the exploration into archetypes. The existing architectural pedagogy is generally a process-based learning and student-centred approach, aiming at design initiative, self-confidence and responsibility. However, the existing pedagogy tends to lack the principles in architectural composition, the senses of structure, material and construction. This thesis attempts to fulfil this gap, by initiating the studio briefs through the studies of literature and textbooks written by architects who are educators. Employing a Design-Based Research framework, this study is derived from the teaching experiences within universities from 2020 to 2024. It incorporates qualitative interviews with contemporary first-year instructors across Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea. The initial outcomes are architectural design studio briefs implemented in the architectural design studio class. The second outcomes include the analyses of the students’ works and the responses to the briefs outlined by students and instructors. This thesis addresses a critical gap by reconciling architectural ontologies with modern pedagogical practice, offering a relevant contribution to current architectural discourse in Thailand.