Architectural Criticism in the Adaptive Teaching and Learning Process

This research result was submitted to the Learning Innovative Centre (LIC), Chulalongkorn University, as part of the project called ‘Classroom Action Research’ in 2011. The LIC’s objective was to encourage tutors to improve their pedagogies, to share their experiences amongst the contributors, and above all to publish their research results to a wider audience. My contribution to the project was an elective
course entitled ‘Architectural Writing’ given to undergraduate students of the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University. The course was not a survey of architectural history, but an attempt to identify particular problems to exercise architectural thoughts. It began with Mary Beard’s Parthenon and the way in which the Parthenon’s pasts were constructed through viewpoints of Le Corbusier and Sigmund Freud. It then moved to problems concerning preservation, restoration and reuse especially in unusual parts of Bangkok. Sathorn Unique Tower was chosen as a most iconic ruin on Charoen Krung Road. At the end of this course, students visited a spirit houses factory called Chokenumsin, on Phet Kasem Road. Domes, classical orders and fl at roofs could be found as new architectural elements for modern-Thai spirit houses.
This course encouraged students to begin to formulate their individual relation to the architecture’s pasts and to become conscious of the consequences of likes and dislikes. The outcome of this course was a two thousand words essy.