Valuable Vernacular Architectural Heritage: Tha Wang Community, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

Tha Wang Community is a remarkably significant historical area and part of Nakhon Si Thammarat’s old town. In the community, there are some historical sites enlisted by the Fine Arts Department. However, a lot more vernacular architecture is prevalent as part of the old town, which suggests the establishment of the community, traditional ways of life and culture as well as great historical evidence of the town. Therefore, it seems that the vernacular architecture in the district is not adequately appreciated, which leads to the following research questions. 1. Is there valuable vernacular architecture in Tha Wang Community? 2. If any, what are the characteristics of valuable vernacular architecture in the community?

The objectives of this study are to survey vernacular architecture in Tha Wang Community and evaluate these buildings in the area to identify the characteristics of Tha Wang Community’s valuable vernacular architecture. The method of study is by establishing evaluative criteria for the vernacular architecture of an old town in four aspects, namely aesthetics, history, science and education, and finally society and experimenting with the buildings form purposive sampling. Valuable vernacular buildings are considered from average scores of the four criteria or receive a high rating from at least one criterion. The findings reveal that apart from the enlisted historic sites, there are other treasured vernacular architectures, such as a raised wooden house near Tha Sak Canal, Bowon Panich Company's shop house, Nakhon Phan Shop's shop house and Kuan U Shrine.