Practice and Methodology for Professional Services of Urban Design inThailand

Abstract

“Urban design” had been issued since the statutory law of architectural professional practice in 1965, but it was not forced into practice until there was the statutory law of architecture in 2000, which the definition of architectural professional practices including substances and objectives were defined and connected with current circumstances. Afterward, the law of architectural professional practices was enacted in 2006 with an objective to determine the scope of works like the statutory law of architecture in 2000. Also, meanings and the scope of works in each architectural fields were specified in this law.

Urban Design program was established in 1960 at Harvard University, USA. After that, it has been widely expanded in different learning programs in many countries. In Thailand, such a program has been arranged in many Thai universities, but courses or curriculums were differently designed. Thus, the knowledge and understanding in the field of urban design have been varied, especially, the viewpoint of theories and practicalities. For this reason, this study focuses on “practice and methodology for professional services of urban design in Thailand” with two case studies: land readjustment and industrial estate planning. These are two of seven in the scope of works as the law of architectural professional practice in 2006 defined, which are controlled by the specified statutory law. These will also reflect the sites, communities and urban contexts more than others. This study was carried out by means of interviewing the experts from both academic and practice fields who work in the urban design field. For literature reviews, the information regarding the rules and regulations of urban design was gathered and analyzed to acquire reliable findings.

In summary, “practice and methodology for professional services of urban design in Thailand” has not been found in this research, because there are various perceptions about urban design held by those who are in academic and practice fields with different properties such as educational background, work experiences, and their roles in the organization. These factors have been integrated into distinctive concepts for urban design. Nevertheless, the important finding in this research is the causes that have made urban design indefinite since the beginning of this program many years ago until now.