USE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF SHOPHOUSES: A CASE STUDY OF THA TIEN’S SHOPHOUSE, BANGKOK

Abstract

In the changing urban context, proposing new uses for historic buildings such shophouses has mould a constraint to place identity when the application of utilisation is grounded on tendencies of demand and consumerism. The historic urban fabric, as a particular physicality of activity and experience in which meaning is interpreted through a sense of place and authenticity, is disturbed by misuse and excessive growth from the new concept of uses. The study of use transformation is to comprehend the capability of responsive behaviour to place bonding, when use is transforming by internal and external influences e.g. life course, repossession, honourability, obsolescence, and opportunity. A case study of Tha Tien, an area that was thriving since the establishment of the Rattanakosin Island, is to represent uses of shophouses that are evolutionally altering to requirements of urban life. The theoretical framework is developed from understanding of behavioural reaction towards re-making place. The measurement method is conducted from the process of reuse emerging with the construction of meaning during the process of place. The data were gained from a survey of shophouses, behavioural observations and semi-structured interviews with occupants in Tha Tien. Issues contributing to use transformation are analysed and synthesised with the place attachment, incorporating placemaking, urban anthropology and adaptability, in which concept, method and process impact to physical setting and meaning of place through perspective of re-making place. The dissertation is concluded that use transformation does not eliminate the meaning of place but rather constructs the meaningfulness of utilisation by changing of uses and experiences as a creative identity of physical setting and meaning process.