Ruen Thai: A Comparative Study between Thai Traditional House and Villa Savoye

Abstract

Traditional Thai houses were discovered in the 13^th B.E. petroglyphs and were documented in the memorandum of Simon de La Loubère, also known as ‘Du Royaume de Siam’ in French. Simon de La Loubère was a French ambassador during the Ayutthaya era. In his book, he described a traditional Thai house as a house standing on the high columns, leaving a vacant space underneath, with a high-pitched roof and straightforward construction. On the other side of the world, 200 years later, stands a house called “Villa Savoye”, designed by Le Corbusier, a Swiss-French architect. His manifesto, ‘Five points of Architecture’ laid the foundation for the Modern architecture movement.  The manifesto encompasses ‘pilotis, free plan, free facade, ribbon window, and roof garden’. Interestingly, both houses share some similarities. Therefore, this research aims to explore the similarities and differences between the two houses. The author reviewed documents from multiple sources about Traditional Thai houses, Villa Savoye, Le Corbusier, and the Five points of Architecture manifesto and compared them. The study demonstrate that a traditional Thai house and Villa Savoye share certain similarities in alignment with the manifesto. Pilotis, free plan, and free facade are among their shared similarities, although they differ in terms of concepts, appearance, material, and methods. Ribbon window and roof garden are not found in a tradition Thai house. Additionally, the research has discovered that both buildings feature extensive roofless terraces, zonings, and accessibilities in a comparable manner. Contrastingly, the construction methods are different.