The Development of Landscape Architectural Design in 5 Star Hotels in Bangkok

Abstract

This thesis has an objective to study the design development of landscape architecture of Five Star hotels in Bangkok. The study area is selected by the criteria namely: 1) is a Five Star hotel in Bangkok that has been certified from Thai Hotels Association, 2) has its landscape architecture designed, and 3) has allowed an access for landscape architectural area survey and granted permission to interview the people related to the landscape architectural designs. From the mentioned criteria, it is found that there are 20 Five Star hotels with designed landscape architecture in Bangkok. However, only 12 are allowed for survey and interview.
The research method starts with the landscape architectural area survey and the interview of the related people namely: Executive Housekeepers, Chief technicians and the landscape architects of each hotel. The questions are listed as 1) The changes of hotels’ landscape architecture, 2) The notable features of landscape architecture in hotels, 3) Maintenance and occurring problems, and 4) Landscape architecture design concept. The information is gathered and analyzed into the design development of landscape architecture of Five Star hotels in Bangkok, in the topics of 1) The changes of hotels’ landscape architecture, 2) The concepts of hotels’ landscape architecture, and 3) Materials and plantings selection in Hotels’ landscape architecture.
The result shows that landscape architecture of Five Star hotels in Bangkok between 1967 and 1997 are designed in “Tropical Gardens” style, which combines the nature with Thai cultural elements. For example, Thai pavilions, lotus ponds and Thai art/sculpture. Natural materials and tropical plants are selected in order to create all-year comfortable, moist, and evergreen atmosphere. After 1997, the landscape architecture tended to be designed in “Modern Tropical Gardens” style, which is simpler with more modern materials, but still uses tropical plantings with accent forms in lesser quantity, which makes the atmosphere clearer and more luxurious, and serves mainly on usage and maintenance purposes.